Elemental
by The Sound of Drums
Summary: Ever since the two schools opened, there has been an undeniable rivalry between the Eastwood and Stonewall drumlines. When Jared has to move during indoor drumline season, alliances are questioned and complete chaos follows. Updates: Edited chapters
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Maddie ran from the band room toward her English classroom, her short black hair flying behind her. She pushed through a group of squealing cheerleaders that was in her way who in turn cursed at her. She rounded the corner, flew up a flight of stairs, and hurried straight ahead, barely making it to her seat as the bell rang loudly. Maddie made a mental note to herself, as she quickly unpacked her things, never to leave the band room that late ever again. However, the stress of being a pit captain trumped running across her gigantic school any day.

Mr. Johnson, Maddie's band director, had held her after band practice last period and gave her the good, but unexpected news: Allison, the current section leader, had dropped out of drumline due to financial issues so Maddie was promoted to section leader. She was excited, but absolutely terrified at the prospect. Even though one senior had dropped out, there were going to be many remaining in pit, none of whom would enjoy being told what to do by an underclassman.

To make matters more difficult for Maddie, the Eastwood HS drumline was going to return to WGI Championships after a grueling "rebuilding year." Two years ago, when Maddie was a freshman, the drumline had placed awfully, making them the laughing stock of the area. Last year they had managed to win back the respect of lines in the local circuit except for one: Stonewall HS. The two schools had been rivals since they opened, but the hatred was especially apparent in the band departments. While Eastwood's symphonic winds program won more competitions, Stonewall's indoor drumline reigned supreme. Maddie's ultimate goal was to put her drumline where it belonged: at the top.

However, none of this was going to happen if she didn't raise this damn English grade. Despite Maddie's German heritage, her parents acted as if they were Asian. Naturally, this caused them to overreact earlier in the semester when their daughter came home bearing a C+ as her English grade. It wasn't that Maddie was bad at English; rather, her teacher was simply out to get her.

"We are going to review our _Odyssey_ essays today," Mrs. Katter announced in a nasally voice. "But first we need to catch up on study hall work, since we reviewed for our quiz then."

"The quiz that I probably failed miserably on," Maddie thought glumly to herself.

"Today our delayed study hall lesson will be about organization and how it affects your performance in school," Mrs. Katter explained, clearly uninterested. She tossed a small pamphlet onto each desk, about 15 pages in all. "Madeline-Rose, are you listening?"

"Yes, ma'am." Maddie said, blushing. Mrs. Katter was the only teacher that ever called her by her full name, and it drove Maddie insane. Mrs. Katter smiled shrewdly and tossed a book onto her desk. "I recommend you read this." She whispered, before moving onto the next desk. Maddie's table-mates snickered, and Maddie glared at them

Maddie picked up the pamphlet and read the title aloud. "How to Get Good Grades," She whispered, chuckling to herself. Good Lord, what did they think she was - a first grader? Curious as to where the publishing company that would publish such a silly thing would reside, she turned the book over to its back cover. A little sticker on the back stated that the publisher was from Dayton, Ohio, where WGI championships were held.

"Is God trying to torment me?" She moaned loudly, looking up at the water-stained ceiling.

"Madeline-Rose, be quiet." Mrs. Katter chided. The class laughed, and Maddie sank into her seat, trying to be as small as possible.

"One more class to go until indoor drumline practice," Maddie thought, trying to calm herself down. It did the opposite, however, causing her to puke onto the girl sitting across from her, who screamed in horror.

"Madeline-Rose!" Mrs. Katter shouted. "To the nurse's office - NOW!"

Maddie quickly got up and ran outside the classroom, feeling her grade drop with every step she took.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Jared smiled inwardly as Miles, his drumline instructor, praised the drumline yet again for another great practice. "Keep this up," he told them, "and we might stand a fighting chance against Eastwood HS!" Everyone laughed, knowing full well no matter how well Eastwood performed, Stonewall would always be one step ahead.

Several announcements were given regarding uniform fittings and upcoming payments. "Drumline dismissed!" Olivia, the lead snare shouted, doing a rimshot. Jared went over to his case, carefully putting in his base drum. He then kicked the case to the back of the room with the rest of the instruments. When this was done, he grabbed his backpack and left the band room, climbing into his moms mini-van. "Jared, I have something to tell you." She said, pulling away from Stonewall.

"Is it dad?" He asked, anxious. His parents had divorced a few years back, and since then his father had developed some health problems. Jared worried about him constantly.

"No, your father's fine." She replied. Jared sighed with relief. ""But I have great news."

"What is it?" Jared asked.

"I got promoted!" She half-squealed, barely containing her excitement.

"Holy crap, congrats Mom!" Jared said.

"It's going to be great," she gushed. "I found us a huge new house that's in a really nice neighborhood, and –"

"Wait, a new house?" Jared echoed. "You mean we're moving?

"Well, yeah." His mom said.

"When?"

"Two weeks from Friday."

"Why the hell didn't you tell me earlier? Like maybe before I joined indoor!" Jared shouted, horrified at the prospect.

"I wanted to make sure everything was final before stressing you out," she explained.

"But I'm staying at Stonewall, right?" he asked hopefully.

"Unfortunately not." She said, crushing his hopes. "You'll be going to Eastwood now."

"But that's our rival school!" Jared protested. "I can't go there!"

"I'm sorry Jared, but that's the way things are." His mom said. Jared sighed and leaned his head against the cool car window, feeling completely helpless.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Maddie sighed, closing her eyes as Mrs. Katter placed her test face down on the desk in front of her. "Face down is never a good sign," she muttered, as people around her smiled at their A's and B's. She was certain that she wouldn't be grinning, unless it was from suddenly going insane from the stress that this class caused her. In a senseless act of teenage rebellion, Maddie had written her essay about how Odysseus was not an epic hero, going in the opposite direction of what the prompt had requested. At the current moment, she was beating herself up for it mentally.

"Here goes nothing." she thought, flipping over the paper. She dared herself to open her eyes, and nearly fainted when she saw her grade.

"I got an A!" she shouted, jumping out of her seat. To add to her happiness, Mrs. Katter had even written on the top of her essay, "Interesting point. I'll have to remember it for the future."

"Madeline-Rose, we all know you're happy with your first A," Mrs. Katter said, the class snickering at this bit of trivia, "But you need to be quiet." Maddie nodded, but truthfully didn't care. There was nothing now stopping her from indoor drumline.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Jared slowly walked from his last period class to indoor drumline practice, trying to take in everything around him. He still couldn't believe that he was going to have to leave everything he knew and loved behind next week when he officially moved. He approached the band room and slid down the railing one last time, landing on the bottom with a flourish. He opened the band room door and briefly panicked when he saw the pitch black room. The last time it had been like this was his drumline initiation last year, which was a Stonewall memory he was more than willing to forget. Jared was sure by the time he was a senior he would look back on the situation and find it funny, but at the current moment he felt differently.

Jared flicked on the light, and nearly had a heart attack when the drumline jumped out of their hiding places shouting "Surprise!" Jared glanced around the band room, confused. Slowly, he took in the balloons and banners hanging around him, and he grinned.

"You didn't have to throw me a going away party." He said, thrilled.

"But we wanted to." Olivia insisted.

A tall, thin girl pushed through the group of the drummers, her red hair cut in a bob right below her chin.

"Hey baby." She said, wrapping her arms around Jared's neck.

"Hey Libby." He replied, kissing her lightly on the lips.

"Get a room you two!" Kyle, a senior on quads, laughed.

"Better yet, take a look at this cake before we kill it!" Olivia said, shoving Kyle good-naturedly. Jared smiled to himself, amused with Olivia's flirting. At Stonewall, there was an unwritten rule that drummers did not date other drummers, including the pit; to them it was the musical equivalent of incest and was likely to cause unneeded drama down the road. Luckily for Jared Libby normally played clarinet and only did cymbals for indoor, exempting them from the rule.

Jared went over to the cake, and his smile grew even bigger when he saw it. It was a blue snare drum with gold rims and hardware just like the ones the drumline played on. "Who made this?" he asked, already pretty sure of the answer.

"I did it." Greg piped up, obviously pleased with himself. Greg, unlike most of the other drumline members, didn't do band as his elective. He was in culinary arts, and his food was worshiped on long bus trips when nothing else but bad fast food was available (although it was fun to do drive-through on the charter busses).

"Anyone have a knife?" Steven, the pit captain, asked.

"What have we told you about trying to kill Kyle?" Jared said, and everyone chuckled. It was common fact that Kyle and Steven had a friendly rivalry of sorts.

"I found one!" Olivia exclaimed, exiting the percussion closet.

"Is that even sanitary?" Libby asked, eying the plastic eating utensil suspiciously.

"Hey, if it makes us sick, then Jared can give Eastwood a nice little surprise." Brian, a bass drummer, pointed out. The drumline roared with laughter at the comment and Olivia cut the cake. The pieces circulated around the room until everyone got one.

"Let's eat outside." Libby suggested to Jared.

"Alright." Jared said, opening the door for her. They chose a spot under their favorite tree, whose leaves had completely fallen off. Jared took a bite of the cake and leaned back on the dead grass, enjoying the brisk November air.

"Jared, we need to talk." Libby said, setting her cake down.

"What about?" he asked, sitting up.

"I really don't want to be doing this to you, with the moving and all," Libby began, "But I think it's best if we see other people."

"Um, can I ask why?" Jared asked, feeling like he had been punched in the stomach.

"Do you really want to know?"

"Who is he?" Jared calmly asked.

"No one." Libby said too quickly.

"I know you're lying." Jared accused, trying to stay calm. "It's not like I've been dating you for over a year and can tell when you are." He could feel his voice rising, but didn't care anymore. "But you like someone new, I get it. Things just get too boring when everything's okay." An awkward silence hung in the air after the mini tirade. "I better go." Jared finally said, getting up. He went inside and threw his plate away. As he looked at the drumline, his friends, all much happier than himself he suddenly felt nauseous. He grabbed the edge of a giant trashcan stolen from the cafeteria, swaying a bit.

"Jared, are you okay?" Kyle asked, noticing the pale look on his face. When no reply came, everyone crowded around him.

"What's wrong?" Brian asked. Jared didn't reply, vomiting into the trashcan instead.

"She told you didn't she?" Olivia asked, obviously aware of the conversation outside. Jared nodded, momentarily wondering why Olivia knew before puking again. Olivia grabbed one of Jared's arms, putting it over her shoulder. "Kyle, grab his other arm." she instructed. "Brian, carry a small trashcan in front of him. Steven, get his stuff and get your car ready."

"Can it be Mr. Boyd's trashcan?" Brian asked hopefully. He, along with everyone else in the music program, despised the band director.

"Why not?" Olivia sighed. "Ready Kyle?" she asked. He nodded, and the two of them dragged Jared out of the band room, Brian walking backwards in front of them. As Jared was dragged up the wheelchair ramp and helped into the car, he couldn't help but think how much he was going to miss his friends.

"Shit." He muttered as he puked into the trashcan in his lap again, pulling away from the school.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Jared leaned his head against the cool car door window, refusing to talk to his mom. It was not fair, Jared thought, that his friends' last memory of him would be him puking in Steven's car on the way home from a disastrous going away party.

"Rainy days and Mondays always let me down." Jared's mom sang along with the radio.

"Tell me about it," Jared muttered, knowing this had to have been the worst Monday in the history of Mondays.

"What was that sweetie?" she asked, turning off the radio.

"Nothing mom." he sighed. He resumed his former position, staring out the window. Jared sat up suddenly as he turned onto the road where his school was. "Are we going the right way?" he asked.

"We're taking a detour." his mom said, pulling up to the front of the school.

"Why are we here?" Jared asked. He had wanted to make this move as painless as possible, and seeing the school again wasn't helping whatsoever.

"So you can say goodbye to your friends." his mom said. "Hurry up - you have 15 minutes." Jared nodded, hopping out of the car and running toward the band room. He had to hurry otherwise he'd miss the drumline at the end of their practice. He opened the band room door, and sighed with relief when they were all still in there. They were sitting around in the back, chatting and laughing with each other. Off to the side Jared saw a boy sitting by himself and assumed he was the new bass drummer that had taken his place. It was nice to see, for Jared at least, that this boy wasn't being easily accepted by the rest of the drumline

Jared attempted to close the band room door quietly but instead it made a huge bang, attracting everyone's attention. They snapped their heads, and beamed when they saw Jared. They all got up and hurried over to him, Olivia leading the pack.

"Hey guys." Jared said as they gathered around him.

"Jared, we wanted to give this to you." Olivia said, handing Jared a long, thin box. He carefully lifted off the lid and took out two drumsticks, tears coming to his eyes. They were the school's colors, with a small S printed on the end in gold.

"I thought they were only for snares." he said, in complete awe of his gift.

"We all know how much you wanted to play snare," Olivia said. "And we felt you deserved them, after all you've done for the line."

"It was a unanimous vote." Brian said.

"From both sections." Steven added.

"Thank you." Jared whispered, running his hand along the smooth, blue-painted wood.

"Come here you." Olivia said, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. The other girls joined in immediately, and the guys reluctantly joined the giant group hug.

Jared head his mom honk the car horn outside, and the group disbanded. "Thank you guys," Jared said, "For everything." He walked out to the car, giving a small wave before climbing in.

"Cheer up Jared." his mom said, pulling away. "Eastwood is a really nice high school. You'll enjoy it there."

"Of course I will." Jared said, trying to humor her. About twenty minutes later, Jared's mom pulled onto the driveway of a huge house.

"We're here." she said, climbing out and fumbling around in her purse for the house keys.

"Are you sure?" Jared asked, eying the place. It was huge and Jared could tell it had at least three floors. "How could we afford this?" he asked, suddenly worried. This was a lot bigger than their old apartment.

"I told you, I got a raise." His mom explained, unlocking the door, "That's why we had to move."

Jared walked inside the house, and the main entrance stunned him. The floors were shiny hardwood, and a miniature chandelier hung from the ceiling. "Your room is on the third floor, first room on the left." she said. Jared quickly went up the steps, eager to see what his new room looked like. Just as his hand touched the doorknob, he couldn't help but laugh at how he was currently acting like an over-excited four year old. He opened the door, revealing a large room. To his dismay all of the walls were painted lime green, which was incidentally his favorite color when he was four; seeing how he was now eleven years older, he thought it was absolutely atrocious. An air mattress lay on the floor which was made of the same type of hardwood as the entrance, and there was a big window which gave a nice view of the woods and the pool behind the house.

"Wait, we have a pool?" he shouted, looking out the window a second time to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.

"Yes, we do." his mom said, coming into the room. "Do you like the walls?"

"It's very..." he hesitated, "bright."

"You can change them, if you want." his mom said, oblivious to Jared's skeptical looks at the walls. "The old residents who lived here left a lot of paint for us to use if we wanted. It's in the garage."

Jared nodded, then ran down to the garage. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

A few days later, on Wednesday, Maddie mentally counted the heads of the pit members, making sure they were all here for practice. "Where's Janie?" she asked. Everyone turned their heads toward the back of the band room, where Janie was making out with Zach. "Janie, get your ass over here!" Maddie shouted.

Janie stopped and looked up, hearing her name. She groaned, rolling her eyes, and gave Zach one more kiss. "Gotta go," she whispered, "Thorn's at it again." – a reference to Maddie's middle name. Zach laughed, squeezing Janie's hand.

"See ya babe." he said, kissing the top of her head. Janie walked across the band room, taking her position behind a marimba.

"How many times have I told you to be on time?" Maddie said, pissed off.

"A lot...?" Janie asked.

Maddie shook her head, preparing her usual spiel on attendance and tardiness, but Mr. Johnson came out of his office. "Maddie, can I see you a moment, please?" he asked. Maddie nodded and walked into the office, closing the door behind her.

"I understand we have a shortage of people in pit?" he asked, folding his hands.

"Unfortunately." Maddie sighed. "We need one more person, to play bells, xylophone, and possibly chimes if Chris gets around to writing a part for them."

"In that case, I have some good news for you." he said. "We have a transfer student who auditioned for drumline. While he didn't audition for pit, I'm sure he'd do alright."

"If he doesn't know how to play, he can always learn." Maddie added, excited by the news.

"Especially with someone as talented as you teaching him." Mr. Johnson said. Maddie's face fell.

"Excuse me?" she asked, making sure she heard him right.

"You heard me. This boy doesn't really know how to read treble clef, as he says he's been doing bass drum or snare his whole life. Also, he doesn't know how to play a mallet instrument, so we need to get him caught up as quickly as possible." Mr. Johnson explained. "You will teach him every Tuesday and Thursday 3:00-5:00, until we both agree he is capable enough to continue on his own. Understand?" Maddie nodded, and he smiled. "Good. Now he'll be here any minute, so that will be all." Maddie left the office, closing the door shut, trying not to slam it in frustration. How the hell was she supposed to keep up her already falling grades if all her time was spent with drumline?

She looked to the door, and saw a boy with reddish-brown hair standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. "You must be Jared." she said, going over and extending a hand. When he didn't shake it or respond in any manner she awkwardly returned it to her side. "I'm Maddie, the pit section leader."

"That's nice." Jared said, not really paying attention. "Where's center snare?"

"Zach?" Maddie asked. "He's the one who's currently fooling around on quads. But you don't really need to know him as much, since you'll be in pit."

"What?" Jared shouted. "But Mr. Johnson said - "

"You made drumline. Knowing him, I'm sure he never said what instrument," Maddie interrupted. "Look, if you want to battle it out with him, go right ahead. He's in his office right now."

Jared stormed off into the office, slamming the door behind him. A few minutes later he came out with a look of defeat on his face. "Where do I start?" he muttered, bright pink.

* * *

**I'm pretty happy with how quickly I got this out. Chapter Four is on its way.**

**As usual, thanks for reviewing!**

**~The Sound of Drums **


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

After yesterday's painfully long pit practice, Jared did not look forward to today's mallet lessons. Maddie had worked his fingers to the bone, and he doubted that she would be any kinder today, especially now that it was one on one. Jared put his forehead against the band room door, fist clenched around the doorknob without turning it. He really did not want to go in and suffer for three hours, his only reward being more blisters and sores on his hands.

He felt the doorknob turn in his hand, not of his own accord. "What the - " he began, but his sentence was abruptly ended when the door swung out, hitting him square in the face. Maddie went out, and gasped when she saw Jared.

"Did I do that?" she asked, horrified to see Jared lying on the ground. Jared glared at her over his hands, which were covering his nose. "Take your hand off of your nose." she said, wedging a few fingers underneath to pry it up. Blood poured out of Jared's nose all over his face and hand. "Good Lord." Maddie muttered, wiping off some of the blood that had accidentally gotten on her onto her jeans. "Sit up, before you inhale your own blood. And put your hand back over your nose." She snapped, helping Jared stand up. "Come on, let's go clean you up." She quickly walked away, and Jared followed, but stopped when she walked into the girl's bathroom.

"I'm not going in there!" he protested, his hand muffling his words.

"Wimp." Maddie jeered. "No one's in here - and you don't expect me to go into the boy's bathroom, do you?" Jared shook his head, but still refused to go in. "Look, girl and boy bathrooms are exactly the same." Maddie said, growing tired. "Only one has urinals, and the other... doesn't." Jared hesitated, but eventually put a foot over the doorway, wincing as if he expected some horrible thing to happen to him. When nothing did, he followed Maddie to the sinks.

She turned on the faucet, soaking a paper towel with the warm water. "At least it's not freezing for once." she muttered, wiping the caking blood off of Jared's face. Four paper towels later, Jared's face was as good as new, and Maddie pushed a towel up against his nose to prevent it from spilling all over his face again.

"Don't want me to ruin your handwork?" Jared laughed.

"Pretty much." Maddie said, turning and leaving the bathroom abruptly. Jared once again found himself running after her, and couldn't help but marvel at the speed at which she was walking. "Why are you after school right now anyway?" Maddie asked, opening the band room door for him. "Lessons don't start until 3:00."

Jared groaned. "Mr. Johnson told me 2:00."

"My friend, you have just learned the basic lesson that all Eastwood band members must learn." Maddie said, throwing an arm around his shoulder. "Mr. Johnson is a huge idiot."

"Are you drunk?" Jared asked, shrugging off her arm. "Out of curiosity, though, if lessons don't supposedly start until three, then why are you here?"

"I was staying after to copy your music." Maddie said, pointing to a small stack of paper on top of the piano. "Mr. Johnson, obviously, doesn't realize that some people have better things to do then teach brats that don't appreciate anything."

"You are drunk, aren't you?" Jared said, dead serious.

"No, I am not." Maddie said, her words beginning to slur. "I'm on a caffeine-low."

"Then get some coffee from Mr. Johnson's office." Jared suggested.

Maddie laughed. "That stuff is crap with a capital 'C'." she said. "I'm going to Starbucks. Come with me - my treat."

"No, I'm alright." Jared said. "Are you sure you should be driving in your condition?"

"I'm not driving silly." Maddie giggled, and Jared looked at her like she was crazy. She was possibly the most bi-polar girl he had ever met. "I don't have my permit yet. We'll be doing the ancient drumline art of fence-hopping." Jared's face twisted up in confusion, and Maddie laughed again. "There's a shopping center nearby – all we need to do is cut through a fenced-in apartment complex." She explained. Jared didn't look sold on the idea.

"Come on." She whined, tugging on Jared's shirt like a little kid would. "What else are you going to do for the next hour?" Jared struggled to think of an answer, but none came. Maddie grinned wider (if that was even possible) and dragged Jared outside, heading toward the school's boundary. She let go of his shirt, and Jared whistled at the sight of the fence.

"That's tall." he said, eying it up and down. "It's got to be a good 8 feet, at least."

"8 3/4, actually." Maddie said, her words still a bit slurred, running her hand along the fence."I should know, I measured the damn thing."

"So what are you doing, exactly?" Jared asked.

"Shh!" Maddie hissed. "Don't want security to hear us."

"This isn't against the law, is it?" Jared asked as Maddie went behind a few trees, still running a hand along the fence.

"Not if you don't get caught." she called. She cussed suddenly, and Jared ran into the trees after her.

"What's wrong?" he asked anxiously, thinking something horribly bad had happened.

"Don't get your boxers tied up in a knot." she snapped. "I forgot that this fence gives splinters." She struggled to squeeze the small sliver of wood out, but to no avail. "Can you help?" she asked. Jared nodded and went over, taking Maddie's hand. He couldn't help but notice how soft it was despite her marimba calluses, and reddened almost immediately at the thought. Luckily she didn't see, and soon the accursed splinter came out. Maddie resumed running a hand along the wall and let out a cry a few seconds later.

"You didn't get another splinter already, did you?" Jared groaned.

"No." Maddie assured. "See this?" she asked, pointing to a groove in the wood. Jared nodded, not sure what she was getting at. "Now watch and learn my friend." Maddie pushed her fingers under the vertical piece of wood, prying it off.

"What did you do?" Jared asked, horrified, as it landed on the ground with a loud clunk. Man, they were going to get in SO much trouble...

"This is your first lesson in fence hopping." Maddie said. "This fence is made from vertical pieces of wood (sharpened at the top to discourage climbing over), and joined together on the apartment's side with long horizontal planks of wood."

"Crap-ass fence." Jared muttered, lightly kicking the piece of wood lying on the ground.

"Exactly." Maddie said. "During my freshmen year, the seniors discovered this. After many hours of hard work, and who-knows-how-many broken drumsticks, this piece was pried off. We originally were planning on prying off two vertical pieces, so we could squeeze through the hole, but then we realized that we could use the horizontal ones as a sort of ladder."

"Why did you use drumsticks?" Jared asked.

"You'd be surprised how much you can do with them." Maddie said. "For example, Max and Zach both know how to unlock the percussion closet and band room using nothing more than a drumstick and a piece of chewing gum."

"That's disgusting!" Jared laughed.

"But it works." Maddie retorted. "Now watch me climb over, and then do it yourself when I say so." At this she put one foot in between the two bottom horizontal strips, and climbed up the wall, one foot at a time. When she neared the top she threw her leg over, making sure to avoid the spikes on either side of her. The second leg soon followed, and Jared watched her feet move down through the hole. About four feet above the ground, and Jared heard Maddie land on the ground with an "oomph!"

"Maddie!" Jared shouted, running over to the fence and looking through the hole, trying to see if she was alright. A bright blue eye greeted him, and Jared jumped back.

"I'm fine!" Maddie laughed. "You'd have to be an idiot to get hurt on this thing. Now you go." Jared did so, the blood pounding in his head. When he safely reached the ground on the other side, he laughed, adrenaline rushing through his system.

"Let's go." Maddie said, starting to walk. Jared, suddenly elated, began running and quickly zipped past Maddie.

"Slow poke!" he shouted over his shoulder, grinning ear-to-ear. Maddie groaned and ran to catch up with him.

"Stupid sophomore." she muttered.

* * *

**As always, thank you for reading! Reviews are appreciated immensely, especially by new readers. As much as it warms my heart to see people add me to their alert/favorites list, reviews make me even happier. And a happy writer is a fast writer, no matter how busy they are.**

**And now for the usual: Chapter 5 will be out A.S.A.P, but I have no guarantees. Indoor drumline, in addition to a million other things going on, takes up almost all of my time. Thank God for geometry and lunch so I can write!**

**By the way, is it just me, or are these chapters getting longer and longer...? **

**~ The Sound of Drums**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The two of them ran through the apartment complex, Jared following Maddie's lead. They went out a back exit, and Jared laughed when he saw the busy shopping center before them. "You weren't kidding, were you?" he said, slowing down to a walking pace.

"Have I ever lied to you?" Maddie asked, following his example. The two of them walked side by side on the street, dodging crazy cars and suspicious looking people. "Just to warn you now," Maddie said as they neared the Starbucks, "This is Stonewall territory. Thought I'd let you know so there wouldn't be any surprises." Jared shrugged, not really caring. He doubted he'd see anyone he recognized since he didn't remember coming to this Starbucks before.

Jared opened the door to the coffee house, and sleigh bells attached to the top of the door ringed loudly, announcing their presence. Maddie walked in and closed her eyes briefly, smiling as she enjoyed the smell of coffee and the caffeine that was soon to come. Jared followed after her, and panicked when he saw a group of familiar faces laughing in the corner.

"Let's go." he said, turning to leave.

"We didn't even order yet!" Maddie protested, grabbing his shirt before he could leave. She dragged him up to the counter and let go of him. Jared looked for an easy escape, and realized with dismay there was none.

"I'll have a venti Christmas blend." Maddie said to a pimply, red-headed cashier. She looked at Jared. "What do you want?"

"A tall double chocolate chip." he muttered, embarrassed by what he felt was a girly order.

"What was that, sir?" The cashier asked in a high and nasally voice. Jared shrunk back a little, afraid that he was attracting too much attention.

"A tall double chocolate chip." he repeated louder, shrinking away even more. Jared's face flushed red, and he didn't hear the cashier give the total, or see Maddie dig around her pocket for a ten-dollar bill. Instead he was more worried about the conversation coming from the circle of overstuffed chairs.

"Is it just me, or does that guy with the Eastwood girl look like Jared?" A voice asked.

"You're so stupid Steven!" a higher voice protested. "He looks nothing like Jared. And I should know - I'm his ex-girlfriend."

"Libby, don't call Steven stupid." Someone snapped.

"Sorry Jackie." Libby apologized. Jared tuned out the rest of the conversation as it turned to gossip about this year's indoor show, still untitled. He knew he was safe for now.

"Venti Christmas Blend!" One of the bistros shouted. Or at least, Jared thought it was a bistro. He was never good at remembering the fancy names that Starbucks used. Maddie walked over and picked up her drink, unintentionally hiding Jared's face from the Stonewall people. She held the huge drink in her hands, inhaling the warm steam coming out of the plastic lid. She took a sip, and her face melted into bliss as the caffeine worked through her system.

"Where's your drink?" she snapped, her attitude similar to yesterday during practice. Jared panicked when he realized this. He was beginning to like the drunk/caffeine-low Maddie a lot better.

"Tall double chocolate chip!" The bistro shouted, sliding the clear plastic cup onto the pickup counter.

"Jared used to always order that." Greg reminisced, and the others nodded in agreement. Jared heard this and tried to figure out some way to pick up the drink without letting his face show. His only option was to walk in an awkward half backward, half diagonal direction. Unknown to Jared, a tall Christmas tree stood behind him and he ended up falling into it. As the world flipped upside down, he saw Jackie and Kyle dive out of the tree's path.

The Stonewall drummers gathered around Jared, wanting to see who interrupted their conversation. They gasped when they saw him. "Jared!" Olivia shouted, smiling. She and Steven helped Jared flip over, so he was sitting upright in the chair. Jared stood up, and Olivia hugged him while the others fixed the tree. They were all visibly glad to see him.

"You won't believe how bad your replacement for bass drum is!" Olivia said. "He doesn't know his left foot from his right, and -" She stopped when she saw Maddie. "Who's the Eastwood smurf?" Olivia asked, eying Maddie up and down.

"Well, well, well, look who we have here." Steven sneered. "Nice to see you again Maddie."

"I wish I could say the same Steven." Maddie coldly replied. Jared could sense the tension and quickly reached behind him to grab his drink.

"Well, we better get going." Jared said, grabbing onto Maddie's shoulder so he could pull her away. "It was great to see you all, really."

As they left the Starbucks, Olivia called: "Know where your alliances lie Jared." Jared slammed the door shut, causing the annoying bells to fall off of the top with a loud clang. They quickly walked through the shopping center, Maddie ferociously taking sips from her coffee as if it was the cause of her anger.

"Damn thing needs more cream!" She shouted, throwing the near-full cup in the trash.

"You can have mine." Jared said, holding out his cup as a peace offering. At this point, he just wanted her to be happy for lessons. Maddie snatched the cup out of Jared's hand, flipped the straw around to the end that Jared hadn't used, and started sucking the cold drink.

"This is good." She murmured, as the caffeine made her more mellow. Jared tried not to look confused, as he was wondering how the hell caffeine worked on her. First it made her irritable, and then it mellowed her out. Perhaps it wasn't caffeine so much as P.M.S...? While Jared pondered this, the two of them walked back into the apartment complex.

"So how do you know Steven anyway?" Jared cautiously asked, backing away in case Maddie decided to throw something in his general direction.

"How do YOU know him?" Maddie countered, taking another sip of the cappuccino.

"Stonewall HS percussion." Jared replied.

"Middle school." Maddie said. "He was a jackass while he played snare in band with me."

"Steven? Play snare?" Jared asked in disbelief. He laughed. "He hates the thing - refuses to go within ten steps of it. He's pit captain now. Are you sure we're talking about the same person?"

"Positive." Maddie said. "And there's a reason why he doesn't like snare Jared. Hasn't he ever told you?"

"No, he's told no one." Jared said. "What happened?"

"It's a long story." She explained.

"We have time." Jared pointed out.

Maddie sighed. "Fine, I will. But you have to swear not to tell about this to ANYONE, understand? I know the drumline knows - they have to considering the circumstances - but I don't want anyone else knowing about this. Especially those so-called friends of yours at Stonewall."

"They are my friends!" Jared protested.

"Do you want to hear the story or not?" Maddie snapped again. Jared nodded, and Maddie closed her eyes. When she opened them, she began her story...

* * *

**Thanks to all who have reviewed ****Elemental!**** Chapter 6 will be coming soon. View this chapter as an early Christmas present from me to you :D**

**As a side note, it's on ClosetBrilliance97. You're going down!**

**Janie's Got a Gun**** update: the next chapter is in its final editing stages. Might take a while, knowing me.**

**~ The Sound of Drums **


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Maddie sighed, trying to gather her thoughts. She wasn't entirely sure whether telling Jared this story was going to be a good idea considering how little she knew about him, but he had to know what despicable assholes his so-called 'friends' at Stonewall really were.

"Steven and I were co-section leaders in the Stonewall MS symphonic band. Obviously, we both played percussion." Maddie began. "I first met him over the summer because it was the first year the band director, Mr. Adams, had required everyone to go to band camp. To tell you the truth, I liked Steven - a lot. He was really funny and sweet and was just as passionate about music as I was; I had never met someone with the same dedication that I had before, and it was refreshing and wonderful. We spent nearly every minute together during band camp, making fun of Mr. Adams and pulling pranks on everyone we disliked. We were the dynamic duo.

On the first day of school Mr. Adams posted the section leader list on the chalkboard. I went up to look, and was ecstatic to see that Steven and I were co-section leaders. Steven, however, was less than pleased. All of a sudden, Steven changed. The next day at school, he acted like an asshole toward me. I couldn't understand what had happened, but I realize now that he's not one to share the spotlight.

He completely abused his position as section leader. Whenever anything went wrong Steven would blame me, and Mr. Adams would believe him instead of me. After a while I took over all the responsibilities to prevent myself from getting in trouble. It was easier that was.

Things went from bad to worse over the course of the next few months. Steven and I were always arguing, typically about stuff that had nothing to do with him. One day, it was worse than normal. The two of us were in the back of the room, shouting at the top of our lungs to each other while the rest of the percussionists cowered off to the side. They were smart enough to know to stay away when the two of us were arguing."

"What was the argument about?" Jared asked.

"We had just gotten new parts for our winter concert, and Steven and I were in charge of assigning parts." Maddie explained. "As usual, Mr. Hot-Shot wanted the snare parts for himself, and intended on giving me bells while everyone else played shitty parts like the triangle. I argued that someone else should play snare for once because Steven had gotten it for every piece in the fall concert. I also told him that he was acting like a spoiled brat and that being section leader didn't mean he could be a dictator. Steven got pissed off and gave me a small shove. Since I'm the world's most klutzy person, I fell backwards into the chimes.

From my view on the ground I saw them start to tip over in slow motion, and I reached out to try to stop them but failed. The chimes fell onto a poor seventh grader who was warming up on French horn, oblivious. It hit him square in the back, pinning him down. Mr. Adams came in just after the chimes fell on the kid, and he and a few other trumpets lifted up the chimes so they were upright again.

The rest of band rehearsal was a blur to me. I remember being horrified at the sight of the kid being doubled over, breathing with great difficulty. I could feel everyone's eyes glaring at me accusingly and I tried not to squirm under their stares. Steven just stood there, smirking at me. I remember a few minutes later, an ambulance siren could be heard in the distance. It grew louder and louder, until it pulled up to the band room door that led outside.

The sight of the medics rushing in through the side door and taking the poor kid to the hospital was too much for me. I started bawling, my head in my hands. A few moments later, a hand squeezed my shoulder, and I looked up to see a red-haired boy looking down at me. 'Are you alright?' he asked.

'What do you think?' I snapped. 'I just sent a kid to hospital! And it wasn't even my fault!'

'Why would it be your fault?' he asked. 'Steven pushed you.'

'You saw?'

'More like... heard.' He explained. 'You two were shouting pretty loud.'

'How many others heard us?' I asked.

'Just me. No one really cared - they're used to the screaming from the back of the room.' He replied. 'I'm Zach.'"

"W-w-wait, so you knew Zach in middle school?" Jared asked, confused. "But Stonewall MS isn't a feeder school for Eastwood."

"Not anymore. When I was there, the majority of the kids went to Stonewall HS after graduation, while a much smaller minority went to Eastwood HS. We were with the minority." Maddie said. "So anyway, we talked a little, and I found out he played saxophone."

"Saxophone? Then how the hell did he get to percussion?" Jared interrupted.

"Patience is a virtue, Jared." Maddie said, tossing the empty Starbucks cup into a trashcan. "After that incident, Zach and I always talked before, after, and during band if possible. We became friends really quickly and I enjoyed his company, especially now that everyone in the band pretty much had shunned me. He was someone for me to vent to, and I really appreciated him being there for me.

Around this time it was December, I think. I remember that a couple of days before winter break I found Zach fooling around on the snare drum before rehearsal like he normally did when he was waiting for me to get there.

'Time to return to your saxophone!' I joked, pulling the drumsticks out of his hand.

'I'm not playing that anymore.' Zach replied, taking them back. 'Mr. Adams is letting me switch to percussion after the winter band concert.' I was both ecstatic and horrified. Ecstatic because I was happy to finally have a friend in the percussion section with me, horrified because I could only imagine how much more of a jerk Steven was going to be not only to me but to Zach as well."

"I don't believe a single word of what you're saying." Jared interrupted. "Steven is one of the most chill guys I know. Are you sure it's the same person?"

"Absolutely sure. And stop interrupting me!" Maddie shouted at him, slapping him on the arm. "Do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?" Jared nodded, and Maddie continued.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

**To be continued...**

* * *

**I am so, so sorry to say that this story, and Janie's Got a Gun, will not have updates anytime in the near future. Things are too crazy for me right now, between everything going on. As happy, or more honored really (since I'm a freshmen), as I am for being switched to marimba one (aka the best part in the whole pit), I'm extremely stressed because we only have 10 practices left before our first competition. You cannot (or maybe you can) imagine how hard it is to re-learn the four-mallet Stevens grip, memorize the music, do fundraising/babysitting because your parents refuse to pay for the five competitions you have to attend, and deal with the pain-in-the-ass instructor I have at the same time. Trust me, not fun.**

**I don't mean to load you down with my problems - I felt I had to explain this so I'd have a halfway legitimate reason to stop for the time being.**

**~The Sound of Drums**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Zach's decision to switch instruments caught me off guard, to say the least," Maddie said. "But once the initial shock wore off, I knew that unless he did a lot of practicing in the next few weeks that he'd be a sitting duck after the concert. I offered Zach lessons, although in reality I kind of told him that he'd be getting lessons and didn't give him a choice. Either way, he agreed that he needed them and we started the next day.

We practiced every day during lunch which was right after the period we had band. This lasted for about a week, at which point we had winter break. Once break started, I would go over to his house twice a week and give him lessons in his basement until we got back to school. As the weeks progressed, it seemed that Zach was definitely a percussionist at heart. He progressed quickly, and he was pretty good at any of the instruments he tried to play. Mallets weren't especially difficult for him to pick up because, unlike the other dopes in the back of the room with us, he knew how to read music thanks to his saxophone background.

But snare, God yes, snare was his passion. You could see it in his eyes, and the way he played, that he absolutely loved the thing. Steven seemed to act the same way, but the warmth and love wasn't there. That was the big difference between the two of them – one simply played the drum while the other was one with the drum."

"Is the rest of this going to be all deep and emotional?" Jared asked, sounding like an annoying 5 year-old to Maddie's ears.

"Pretty soon, Zach was way better than I was at snare," she continued, ignoring Jared. "All I could do at that point was recommend a few method books that would help him build some chops and refine his technique. Amazingly, he progressed even further using those books by himself, and he was lead snare by sophomore year. But that's another story.

By the time he and I stopped snare lessons, it was January, and we had our band concert in a few days. We decided to take a break so we could practice our concert pieces since neither of us had really looked at them in about a month. The concert went fine, with Steven showing off and playing snare way too loudly, as usual. I played my dinky little bell part, and everyone else did their mediocre parts perfectly. It was a flawless concert, which made Mr. Adams extremely happy.

Then the dreaded day finally arrived. Band started, and Steven didn't initially notice me and Zach talking in the back while Mr. Adams was giving out music. Steven went up to get the parts - one of the few things he actually did - and then he saw Zach sitting with me.

'Isn't he on saxophone?' he said coldly to one of the percussionists, not looking at either of us. Everyone gave a confused look to Steven and he sighed, finally addressing me. 'Well, isn't he?'

'Zach's switching to percussion.' I explained nonchalantly, remaining in my seat. 'Mr. Adams gave him permission.' Steven's ears turned bright pink in anger but otherwise, he said nothing. Instead he shuffled through the parts, trying to look busy. 'You'll be playing bells.' he said to me, handing me the part. I looked it over, and nearly gagged when I saw that there were a grand total of five measures of bells in a nearly 100 measure piece.

'Can I play timpani?' I asked as sweetly as possible, trying to get off of the crappy part.

'No.' Steven said, intent on punishing me for bringing in an outsider. 'Aaron will play them.'

'I want to do something else.' he whined. 'I'd rather play bells.' I raised my eyebrows, smirking.

'You'll play timpani.' he ordered, shoving the part in poor Aaron's face. He glared at me, viewing me as the source of rebellion. 'And you'll play bells. Got it?' Zach clenched his fists defensively, but said nothing.

'Let me remind you that as co-section leader I can override your decisions if there's a majority vote in my favor.' I pointed out. 'And I believe it's three against one in this case.' Steven glared even more, but grabbed the part out of Aaron's hands and gave it to me.

'Fine.' he said, walking off to prevent further embarrassment and to hand out the rest of the parts. A few minutes later, I noticed everyone with sad looks on their faces.

'What's wrong?' I asked one of them.

'Steven's on snare again.' They complained simultaneously. 'We want a turn for once.'

'You guys suck at snare.' Steven spat. 'I'm only on it because I want our section to be the best.'"

"He said that bullshit even back then?" Jared laughed.

"Some people never change." Maddie replied, shrugging. "I suggested that if he was so sure, then we should have try-outs for snare to see who deserved it. Everyone other than Steven agreed. Half the percussionists tried sight reading the part, but failed miserably. They would go on snare, play a few notes, and then turn bright pink when they realized they couldn't read anything else on the page. The other half of the percussionists were too afraid to try to stand up to Steven. Finally it was Zach's turn, and I threw out a generic wish to whatever diety that happened to be listening that Zach would do alright… part of it was for his sake, but mostly it was because I wanted to see Steven be beaten.

Zach fumbled through the first few notes, but then pulled through the rest of the piece and played it great. Steven frowned, his face paling when he realized that for the first time in his life, there was some competition. He went up to play, took a few minutes to look at the notes, and gave up, mumbling about how it was a stupid part that he didn't want anyway. We all knew it was because he didn't want to be publicly humiliated.

A month passed, and Zach remained on the snare piece. Steven was on snare the other pieces, due to a little bit of bribery on his part. I somehow got stuck on triangle, ('As co-section leader I can override your decisions with a majority vote.' he'd tell me) and Zach was on tambourine, if he was lucky. Either way though, we passed the class, so we were happy anyway.

In February, the dreaded day eventually came."

"And what day would that be?" Jared asked.

"Valentines day." Maddie said, saying it as though it left a sour taste in her mouth. "Up until 8th grade, I hated the day. I hated having to be nice to people I disliked and giving them cheap cards with lollipops that I got at CVS the night before; I hated the frilliness and the mooshy-gooshy crap and the sudden spike in public displays of affection that lasted around a week.

At least, I hated that day until Zach asked me to go to the dance with him. The year before a different boy had asked and I turned him down – it was not my idea of fun. Like, who would want to dress up all nice and fancy only to sweat like a pig in a crowded gym with bad music and even worse dancing? No. ."

"Pigs don't actually sweat, did you know that?" Jared asked. Maddie glared at him.

"You're just full of useful information, aren't you?" she said sarcastically. "Anyway, he asked me to go with him and it was different… I found myself actually wanting to go which surprised me. Of course Zach asked at the last minute so I had to scramble to find a dress, but when I found one it was absolutely perfect." She noticed Jared was getting bored so she skipped ahead to the important part of the story.

"The dance in and of itself was alright, I guess. Or it was until Steven decided to get back at me for what I had done to get Zach to beat him. During one of the slow dances, Steven and a couple of his douche-y friends came up to me and Zach. Without warning, they suddenly threw buckets of bright blue paint all over us. I stood there, shocked, trying so hard not to cry while Steven high-fived his friends and ran out. Zach chased after them, and I looked around to see that a couple of my 'supporters' in the percussion section had also gotten paint on them… Steven was trying to humilate us all at once. And he succeeded.

From then on out, the five of us who had been pranked were referred to as smurfs. Part of it was because of the paint, and the other part was because I was so freaking tiny at that point – I was barely four and a half feet tall."

"You make it sound as though you've grown since then." Jared said.

"Shut up! I'm now 5'1" thank you very much." Maddie said, sticking her tongue out at him. "But yeah. Steven and his crew never got in trouble for the prank because administration said they couldn't really tie it back to him, which was complete crap. But Steven wasn't done yet. Oh no. He got everyone in the school that wasn't a friend of mine to whisper 'smurf' to me in the hallways and during class. There were kids who I didn't even know who were saying it to me – it was terrible. And as stupid as it sounds, I let it all get to me. The same thing happened to Zach, but he was able to shrug it off and not care. But when they did it to me, I could feel a little bit of my sanity being chipped away every time they said it.

Because of the torment, band was no longer my safe haven. I quit band in the beginning of march and started drinking because I was bored after school and didn't have anything better to do. It very quickly became a problem which Zach knew existed but I didn't want to admit having. At this point we were going out and he threatened to break up with me if I didn't sober up; he didn't actually want to, but he was just trying to help me. I didn't believe him, and he held out on his end of the deal.

At this point I was done with absolutely everything. Nobody at school liked me, my best friend and boyfriend had now deserted me, and my parents were never home. Alcohol wasn't enough of an escape, so I decided to take it a step further. One night, when I knew Mom was taking the late-night shift at the hospital, I did my usual drinking and this time took a handful of her meds to go with it.

Luckily it turned out that Mom wasn't needed for the shift so she returned home within an hour of her leaving. When she found me passed out in the bathroom with the meds and alcohol, she quickly put two and two together and called 911. I was in the hospital for a while, and then had to go to a mental institution for my suicide attempt for a month.

When I got home I struggled to catch up on my work in order to move on to high school in time. The kids at school were significantly more cordial toward me which helped a lot. Unfortunately I heard gossip that while I was at the hospital Zach had developed some problems of his own… apparently he had dated no less than seven girls in the month and a half since he had broken up with me. I was upset and would have drunk more, but alas, Mom had declared us a sober household and got rid of all the alcohol. Dad was less than pleased by this.

Despite the womanizing rumors I had heard about Zach, we attempted to repair our friendship, which is fine now. I didn't rejoin band until high school though because I didn't want to have to deal with Steven ever again. Unfortunately I run into him from time to time like we did at the Starbucks, but otherwise things haven't been bad since middle school. In hindsight it all seems kind of stupid."

Jared was quiet. "You know, this is the longest time I've heard you be quiet." Maddie commented. Jared nodded silently, feeling guilty for laughing at all the times Steven talked about the paint incident at the dance. Steven had never mentioned any of the aftermath of it.

The rest of the walk back to the school was pretty quiet until Jared spoke up, "You know, it isn't really that stupid."

"Eh," Madde shrugged.

"Also, I just realized that you never really explained why Steven dislikes snare," he commented.

"It's because he was embarassed as hell and doesn't want to go back down that road again." Maddie explained. "Just like the word smurf brings up bad memories for me, playing the snare brings back bad memories for him."

"I think he's just being a wuss about it," Jared said, jumping over the fence. He didn't get to see Maddie's beaming, grateful smile on the other side.

* * *

**Seems like Maddie easily loses her temper when she has had her daily dose of caffeine. I'm starting to agree with Jared - I like the caffeine-low Maddie better XD**

**Sorry that the chapter was so long. I felt I had to make up for freaking some of you out by saying I was taking a nice long break.**

**~The Sound of Drums**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Keep your wrists down!" Maddie snapped, using a drumstick to push Jared's scrawny wrists down as he played the xylophone.

"Can I have a break?" Jared asked, stopping mid-warmup

"Not until you learn at least one of the warm-ups." Maddie said.

"Maybe I'd learn the warm-up if you weren't being so hard on me." Jared grumbled.

"Maybe I'd be less hard on you if you tried to have good technique!" Maddie countered.

"Maybe I'd have good technique if I had a water break!" Jared shouted.

"Keep playing!" Maddie screamed. Jared glared, but continued anyway. A few minutes later, Maddie stopped him yet again. "Stop!" she groaned. "You can't play the thing like you're an effing caveman. Hit the bar and bring the mallet up, keep your wrists low, and don't use your arms! Got it?"

"Yes, but understanding and doing are two different things." Jared thought.

"Then do both!" Maddie replied. Jared blinked. Had he said that aloud? It was starting to seem as though he needed the caffeine more than Maddie.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Maddie watched Jared play the B flat scale again and tried not to wince at his horrible technique. She understood that it was his first time playing a keyboard instrument, but even the freshmen had learned quicker than he did!

"Please, Jared, just stop." she begged, rubbing her now aching head.

"I thought I did better that time." he admitted, disappointed.

"You fixed the wrists, but you shouldn't dig the mallet into the instrument." Maddie said. "It's like whack-a-mole. You can't leave the hammer over the hole; otherwise you aren't going to hit any moles. The only difference here is that there are two hammers, aka mallets, and you shouldn't slam the bars with all your might. I'm not sure how much more Paul can take."

"Paul?" Jared asked. "You named your instrument?"

"And you didn't?" Maddie countered. "We have a source on the inside."

"Of what?"

"I can't stand this!" Maddie shrieked. "You're such an idiot! I need to go home before my head explodes."

"So... practice is over early then?" Jared asked hopefully.

"Yes, Jared, practice is over." Maddie said, swinging the xylophone back into its place. She threw the rest of the music at him. "I want you to practice this before next lesson. And it better be better than it was today." At this, she grabbed her stuff and walked out of the band room, crossing the street so she could go home.

"Stupid sophomore." she muttered for the second time that day. She turned left a few minutes later, and unlocked the front door to a tall apartment building. She closed it behind her, the automatic lock clicking shut. A few flights of stairs later, Maddie was inside her home. She threw her stuff on the floor and collapsed on the couch, crashing from her Starbucks.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

On Saturday, Jared was awakened by the shrill beeping of his alarm clock. The sudden noise caused him to fall out of his bed in surprise. "What time is it?" he muttered, rubbing the growing bump on his head where it slammed against the bedside table. "7:30am?" he shouted, pissed off. "Why is my alarm clock set that early?" He half-ran, half shuffled down the hallway, grabbing a shirt on the ground and putting it on. It was a little tight, but provided a little more covering then his boxers currently did.

"Good morning sweetheart." his mom said, taking a kettle of tea off of the stove. "You're up rather early, aren't you?"

"My alarm clock was on." Jared grumbled, grabbing a bagel sitting on the table and taking a violent bite out of it. His mother glared at him for being unpleasant and took back her breakfast, placing it on the island table.

"Well, while you're up you might as well make a good use of yourself." she replied. "Go outside and get the newspaper, please."

"Why can't Yoko do it?" Jared moaned. Yoko was their housekeeper, a short, kind Japanese woman. Jared's mom had recently hired Yoko when she realized that she knew almost nothing about cleaning and cooking. She appreciated the help, and Jared enjoyed the added benefits of having Yoko around which included Friday sushi nights and help with his Algebra 2 homework.

"She's out of town for the weekend." His mom explained, pouring the tea into a coffee cup. "Her father just died, so she went home to visit her family and pay respects. Speaking of which, show me some respect and get the newspaper while I'm gone."

"Work?" Jared asked.

"The one and only." She sighed, kissing the top of his head. "I should be back around 7. Help yourself to anything that's in the fridge, and don't forget you have drumline at 1:30. Got it?"

"Yes mom." he sighed. She smiled and walked out the front door, leaving it open to remind Jared to get the newspaper. When she pulled out of the driveway, Jared went outside and couldn't help but laugh at how uncharacteristically warm it was for December. According to the thermometer in the garden, it was almost 50 degrees. He picked up the paper and started walking back to the house, muttering curses to Al Gore and global warming.

He heard someone giggle and turned his head towards the source of the noise. Next door there was blond girl sitting on a balcony attached to the house, most likely adjacent to her bedroom. As she ate her breakfast, still laughing, Jared couldn't help but think he knew her from somewhere. A light bulb went off in his head, and he linked a name to the face.

"Janie lives next door?" He wondered. Jared stood in the driveway, wondering what exactly she was laughing at. He happened to glance down, and was reminded of his current attire. Turning beet red, he ran into the house, Janie's shrieks of laughter following him.

* * *

**After looking down the list of new and updated stories, I have come to one conclusion: Drabbles are evil! I don't mean to offend anybody who writes them, but they aren't my favorite types of fanfiction in the world. When the first two came out I thought "Hey, this is kind of cool!" But now everyone is doing it, and the magic has gone away. So, to slightly change the words of my percussion instructor: "Every time a drabble is written, an astronaut dies. Think of the astronauts!"**

**And now that my little rant is done... time for the usuals.**

**Reviews are loved and appreciated :) And, on a side note, the next chapter of Janie's Got a Gun is starting to be written. Still trying to think of an ending, though.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**~The Sound of Drums**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

After putting on some real clothes, Jared lounged around the house, putting off walking to drumline as long as possible. Sure, it was a beautiful day outside, but it didn't mean that he wanted to go anywhere within one hundred feet of Eastwood High School. The grandfather clock in the hallway announced it was 1:00, and Jared decided it was time to go unless he wanted to get his ear chewed off by Maddie.

He locked the house up and slipped the key into his pocket, taking a quick glance at Janie's house to make sure the coast was clear. When he was positive that it was, Jared walked down the new sidewalk, dipping a finger into a part that wasn't quite dry yet. Wiping the sticky gunk off in the grass, he continued.

He reached the school about 40 minutes later, and prayed Maddie wouldn't yell at him for being ten minutes late. To his disappointment she was sitting outside, anxiously drinking more Starbucks out of a thin straw. As he walked towards the band room doors Jared winced, expecting the worst.

"Thank God!" Maddie said, jumping up. "I thought you were already inside!" Jared opened his eyes in surprise, not sure if she was being sarcastic or not.

"Uh... what?" He asked, not following.

"You can't go in there." Maddie begged.

"What? Do you _want _to get me kicked out of drumline?" Jared snapped.

"Of course not," Maddie said. "But please, as a friend, trust me when I say you can't go in there!"

Jared laughed. "A friend?" he questioned. "Maddie, you are single-handedly one of the most bipolar people I have ever met in my life. I'm never sure when you're going to be Maddie-the-friend or Maddie-the-pain-in-the-ass. No please move so I can go inside and get ready for drumline." Jared instantly regretted his words when he saw her face fall ever so slightly, but still pushed past her anyway to go inside.

When Jared walked into the band room, something pushed him up against the painted cinderblock walls, the sound mufflers cushioning the impact. His vision blurred, and when it focused, he saw Zach glaring at him. "How dare you!" Zach hissed, loathing in his eyes.

"What did I do?" Jared asked.

"You know what you did dammit!" Zach shouted, letting go of Jared and pushing him against a non-muffled part of the wall instead. His head hit the wall with a loud knock.

"I can't admit to doing anything if you don't tell me what I did!" Jared snapped, earning himself a punch in the face. Maddie winced, seeing the blood trickle down his face, but otherwise remained silent.

"Fine. Take a look." Zach said smugly, letting go of Jared and turning him around to face to back wall of the band room. Jared gasped when he saw the mess. Written on the wall, in bright blue spray-paint was a single word: "Smurf." The equipment was all damaged; the drum heads were ripped or had huge holes in them, and most of the cymbals were cracked in two. The height mechanisms on the marimba were broken, causing the instruments to be at an odd angle, and the strings had been cut.

"Happy now?" Zach said, pushing Jared up against the wall yet again, hands wrapped loosely around his neck. "Now I'm sure you remember your own dirty work."

"Not if I didn't do it!" Jared said in defense.

"Liar!" Zach shouted, his hands tightening around Jared's neck more and more. Jared couldn't help but wonder, in his oxygen-deprived state, if everyone was bent on murdering him.

"I. Did. Nothing." Jared managed to choke out. His face was starting to turn purple. Most of the freshmen stood off to the side, horrified at this side of their section leader. The upperclassmen watched calmly, knowing that Zach would let go just before Jared would pass out. He always did, and they assumed it wouldn't be any different. Then they got anxious as they saw Jared flailing his legs and pushing against the hands around his neck.

"Zach stop!" Maddie pleaded, running forward and grabbing his arm. Zach didn't listen to her, and Max joined in, trying to pull his arms away. But the more resistance Zach got, the stronger he seemed to be getting.

"Zach, sweetheart, stop." A calm, quiet voice whispered into his ear. It worked like a charm, and his arms fell back to his sides. Jared fell to the ground, and Maddie caught him before he could hurt his head more. Janie wrapped her arms around Zach's neck, trying to distract him from his rage.

"Come on." Maddie whispered, leading Jared out into the hallway. He staggered behind, and Maddie couldn't help but resist quoting him. "Are you drunk?" she asked, trying to lighten up the mood. Jared glared at her, and managed to make it to one of the benches in the lobby. His nose was still bleeding, although a lot more heavily than before. Maddie wasn't a doctor but could guess that his nose was most likely broken.

"I'm going to go get you a paper towel to clean you up." Maddie decided. She went into the girls' bathroom and grabbed a wad of towels, running it under the cold water. As she was walking out, she was surprised by Jared, who had joined her in the bathroom. She let out a squeal in surprise, the soaked towels falling to the floor with a flop.

"What are you doing in here?" She said, horrified.

"I've been in here before." Jared reminded her.

"But I dragged you in here last time! Why are you in here?" She repeated.

"Zach was... shouting." Jared said, trying to think of a more accurate word. "No, it was more like screaming at the top of his lungs. 'I'm going to find the little bastard and kill him!'" he imitated in Zach's voice.

Maddie shook her head sadly. At the current moment, Jared looked like a scared little kid and she pitied him. "Let's get you cleaned up." she cooed, getting some more paper towels and wiping the blood off of his chin and under his nose. When she lightly put the towel against his nose, barely touching it, he pushed her away.

"That hurts!" he shouted, putting his hand on his nose protectively. He shouted again, and decided to keep his hands by his sides, regardless of the river of crimson blood.

"Suck it up." Maddie said, trying to be a little gentler. Jared winced in pain, but otherwise said nothing. Maddie glanced at the clock on the wall, one of the few in the school that was on time. "We're probably going to be here awhile." she commented, sitting on the ground. Jared eyed the tiled floor suspiciously, his eyes peering out from behind the paper towel, but he eventually joined her.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

"So..." Jared began, trying to start a conversation. The two of them had been sitting silently for the past fifteen minutes, blankly staring at either the ground or each other.

"So..." Maddie echoed. She suddenly wished that something, someone, _anything_, would come in and make enough noise for the two of them. It was fulfilled a few moments later when a sobbing Janie ran into the bathroom. "Janie, what happened?" Maddie asked, getting up from the floor and accidentally revealing where Jared was.

"What's HE doing here?" she shrieked. "Get him away!"

"What did I do now?" He sighed.

"Janie calm down." Maddie instructed. "Now tell me something, is Zach still here?" Janie shook her head, her eyes puffy and red. "Good. Jared, you can go home. Janie, stay here with me a little." Jared gave a questioning glance towards Janie, but Maddie sternly glared at him and he walked out, most likely calling his mom for a ride home.

When he was gone Maddie turned towards Janie. "Janie, what happened?" she asked calmly.

"Zach calmed down for a few moments when you snuck Jared out of the band room." Janie explained. "But when he realized he was gone he got even madder, saying he was going to kill him."

"So I heard." Maddie said.

"Anyway, I told him it couldn't have been Jared, because I didn't see a car leave or enter his house all of last night."

"Is that true?" Maddie asked. "Do you live across the street or something?"

"Right next door. But Zach didn't believe me, and said I was cheating on him with Jared!" Janie choked out a sob. "I said it wasn't true, that I'd never do that, but then he brought up my history."

"That's not something in your favor." Maddie commented.

"Either was it wasn't fair! And before I knew it, he had broken up with me." Janie started crying again, her sobs echoing in the bathroom.

"He did what?" Maddie shrieked, outraged. She knew that Zach knew better. "Come here." Maddie said, hugging Janie.

"I guess we can assume neither one of us have a ride home?" Maddie asked. Janie nodded, and Maddie sighed in turn. "You can stay the night." she offered. "I know that Zach and Amanda switch off with sleeping over after the whole Mark thing..."

"Thank you Maddie." Janie sniffled, wiping off her nose on Maddie's shoulder. Maddie tried to smile pleasantly but wasn't pleased with the amount of snot on her sweatshirt.

"Come on, let's go. I have to give my mom a warning before she comes home from work." Maddie said. Janie wiped away the mascara running down her cheeks, and attempted to fix her hair. When Janie felt that most of her dignity was intact, the two of them walked to Maddie's apartment.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Jared stood in the now empty band room, devastated by the amount of destruction in the room. "5 bass drums, 2 quads, and four snares." he sighed. "What a waste." The word 'smurf' on the wall burned itself into his brain, and he finally couldn't stand it anymore. He was going to fix this, even if it took him all night.

He first went over to the quads and looked in one of the stick bags for a drum key. It was then he noticed something strange about the drum heads. They had blue on them, the same color as the paint on the wall. One the first drum of the quads, he could make out a 'w'. Then an 'i', followed by a 't'. As Jared slowly walked along the line of ruined drums, he slowly realized what he was reading.

"With love, Stonewall."

* * *

**Chapter 10 will be up soon, I hope. The sooner the better, because I intend on celebrating the milestone (WHOOT!) by getting a manicure while drinking my Starbucks, lol. **

**Oh, and if you haven't already, take the poll on my page. I enjoy getting feedback, and want you guys to enjoy the story, instead of rolling your eyes at a stupid plot line I use. So vote!**

**On a totally unrelated note, we're getting a new marimba in drumline (YAY!) It's gorgeous and pretty close to brand new. I love it! **

**~The Sound of Drums **


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

When Maddie and Janie finally got to the small apartment, Maddie's nerves were completely frayed. The walk home had been the longest 10 minutes of her life, and she was starting to wonder how long the rest of the night was going to be. Maddie unlocked the door and Janie walked in, silent for a moment as she was taken aback by the nice furnishings in the small apartment. Then she ran over to the leather couch and flung herself on it, sobbing her little heart out. Maddie shook her head and went over to the phone, taking it out onto the balcony and closing the door so Janie wouldn't be able to hear.

"Hey Mom, is it alright if I have Janie over for the night? She's had a really shitty day and I don't want her to be alone." Maddie asked. She paused as she listened to her mother. "Yes, that Janie. And we do so get along!." Another pause. "I know that you've got the red-eye shift and that Dad's out of town, but I promise we won't get into trouble... Thank you!" Maddie smiled and hung up the phone. She could hear Janie crying through the glass door and sighed sadly. She went inside and locked the door behind her because the last thing she needed was for Janie to try to do anything from the fourth floor balcony.

"Everything's going to be okay Janie." Maddie assured, throwing a bag of popcorn into the microwave. "Tonight we're going to watch chick-flicks until I bawl my eyes out with you, and we'll have junk food galore. Doesn't that sound good?" She gave a half-hearted smile, but Janie still didn't respond. "Janie...?"

"What do you know about lost love?" Janie sobbed. "At least you have Jared!"

"Woah, what now?" Maddie asked.

"You heard me. It's so obvious about you and Jared. Have you seen the way you two look at each other?" Janie asked.

"I swear to God Janie, you are the most delusional person I've ever known." Maddie snapped. "I hate the dumbass and only give him lessons because Mr. Johnson said I have to. Trust me, I would avoid him otherwise. And besides, he's a Stonewall kid, so he'd never like me like that in a million years. Got it?"

"Whatever you say Maddie." Janie replied sarcastically. For a brief, wonderful moment, everything was silent. Then Janie began crying again. "Oh Zach!" she wailed. Maddie shook her head. It was going to be a long night indeed.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Jared quickly took a step back after seeing the destroyed equipment, and tripped on a lone drumstick in the floor. His head slammed into the ground with a loud thud, and he hoped that all this abuse to his skull wasn't going to cause any permanent damage. Rubbing his head, Jared got up and glanced at the clock.

"I've got 3 hours left until Mom is supposed to pick me up." he muttered. "Might as well do something useful while I'm here."

An hour and a half later, the drum heads on all the equipment were replaced and tuned thanks to some funds provided by Jared (who had gone to the music store on a rusty scooter that he found in the storage room). Now his attention was turned toward the ugly blue 'smurf' written on the deep purple back wall. "Ammonia cleans stuff off, doesn't it?" he asked himself. After coming up with no better solutions, he set out to find some. He quickly found the janitors closet, which was open as if begging him to come in and find what he needed.

Jared walked into the small closet, and immediately found what he was looking for. "Sweetness." he said, tucking the clear plastic bottle under his arm. To his right was some bleach, and he decided on taking that also, figuring that if he combined the two products it would become a super-cleaner. Before he closed the door behind him, Jared noticed extra paint cans on a shelf. He pried one open with a screwdriver and saw that it was the same color as the band room walls.

"Perfect!" he shouted, dropping the two bottles he had on the floor and grabbing two of the cans. He grabbed a paint brush and went back to the band room, and soon enough the wall was as good as new (if not better, in his opinion). Now that the huge projects were done, Jared's attention turned to the cymbals, which still lay broken on the ground.

"Goodbye college fund!" he laughed, riding off to the music store to buy six pairs of new marching cymbals.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

It had to be past midnight now, and Janie still was crying. No matter how many Johnny Depp and Heath Ledger movies Maddie had put in, Janie still refused to shut up. Maddie had even sucked up her dislike of "The Notebook" and put that on in hopes that Janie would run out of tears. "Janie, please, we have drumline practice again tomorrow." Maddie begged. "Go to sleep."

"Mark!" Janie moaned, "Zach!" She slammed her head on the coffee table and immediately regretted it. "Shit, that hurt!" she shouted.

"Janie, the neighbors are going to kill me if you don't shut the hell up!" Maddie shouted. Seeing Janie rub her reddened forehead, Maddie had a burst of inspiration. She ran into the bathroom and came back with a bottle of PM Advil. If Janie wasn't going to cry herself to sleep, then Maddie sure as hell was going to drug her to sleep. She handed two of the pills to Janie. "Take these," She instructed, getting her a drink of water. Janie followed orders, and almost immediately it seemed to have an effect on her.

"I'm tired." Janie said dreamily.

"Take a seat here." Maddie sat, patting the couch, "And rest your head on one of the pillows, if you want."

"Thanks Maddie." Janie said in the same tone. Within five minutes, she was asleep.

"Thank God." Maddie groaned, spreading out a sleeping bag on the floor. She crawled inside, and ventured off into dreamland.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Janie was surrounded by a thick fog that prevented her from seeing anything more than an arms length away. She was scared, but still ventured blindly into the fog without any clue of where she was going. Still, her footing was sure, as if some invisible force was guiding her. She ground sloped up into a hill, and Janie could vaguely make out the figure standing at the top.

"Mark!" she cried, running up and throwing her arms around her dead brother. He wrapped his arms around her protectively and then evaporated into thin air. Janie fell to her knees, and began sobbing.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Maddie and the rest of the Eastwood were on the floor in UD Arena with the other lines, anxiously waiting for their results for WGI finals. It was down to the top two in the class: Eastwood HS and Stonewall HS. She grabbed Jared's hand and squeezed it, along with Janie's. He gave her a shaky, nervous smile in return.

"In second place... Stonewall high school!" The announcer boomed. Maddie gasped, completely confused. They had to have read the placement sheet wrong, there had to be some mis-

"And I'm proud to announce that our 2011 Scholastic A Champion is Eastwood High School!" There was a split second of silence, and then the crowd jumped to their feet, cheering at the top of their lungs as Zach and Max stepped forward to get the giant trophy. Maddie squealed with delight and turned to hug Janie. Then she turned to her right and gave Jared a hug. He grinned, and then planted his lips on hers. Suddenly the crowd disappeared, and there was nothing but the two of them and the stadium floor under their feet...

Maddie sat up, panting as though she had a bad dream. "What the hell?" she muttered, shaking her head. "Stupid Janie, putting these damn ideas into my head." She lay back down, and fell back into a dreamless sleep.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Jared walked toward the band room the next day, not sure why exactly he was choosing to end his life in this manner. One step inside that door, and BAM! Zach would beat him to a pulp. Nevertheless, he opened the door, cautiously peering around inside. To his surprise, everyone brightened up when the saw his face.

"Jared!" They all called, all tension from the day before obviously gone. Jared grew confused. Was this some kind of a cruel, sick joke? Maddie's eyes sparkled, and she ran over to Jared.

"Hey sweetheart!" She said, throwing her arms around his neck, smiling. Before he could shake her off, her lips touched his. Suddenly the rest of the drumline disappeared, and there was nothing but the two of them and the band room floor under their feet...

Jared tumbled out of his bed, his head rapping against his bedside table with a loud crack. He quickly got up, rubbing his aching head. "Stupid..." he began, trying to think of something to blame his dreams on. Nothing immediately came to mind, so he climbed back into bed, grumbling to himself as he fell back asleep.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

There was a fine mist everywhere, causing Zach to see nothing that was farther then an arm's length away from him. Being pulled by an invisible force, he wandered blindly into the fog, his arms held out in front of him for protection. He felt the ground slope up a little, and finally saw a dark figure on top of what he assumed was the hill. "Janie...?" he asked hesitantly. He saw her head raise up, and his heart ached when he saw Janie's red, puffy eyes; she had obviously been crying. But he didn't run to her and hold her in his arms, like he normally would have. She had cheated on him, and he wasn't ready to forgive her.

"I swear, I didn't do anything with Jared." She sobbed, exactly what she had told him earlier. "I would never do anything like that do you... How could you think such a horrible thing of me?"

Zach lost his temper. "Because of your previous history!" he shouted at her. He could see that she was trembling, but ignored it.

"Please, just trust me." Janie begged. She kept repeating this as she slowly faded away. Suddenly Zach panicked and reached out toward her to keep her where she was, but it was too late. Zach was now all alone.

He woke up and went into the bathroom, splashing cold water from the sink into his face. "What a crazy dream." Zach muttered, shaking his head. He went back into his bedroom, and fell back asleep. He was going to need the rest for Sunday morning's practice.

* * *

**PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Jared was being an idiot. Never, EVER use bleach and ammonia together. It it NOT good, and you'll end up dying from the toxic fumes.**

**So... a quick explanation. Janie's brother died in Janie's Got a Gun, which was the unintentional prequel to Elemental. I would say check it out if you get the chance but I'd like to edit it first before anyone rereads it.**

**Thanks for reviewing all my stories! You guys rock! **

**~The Sound of Drums**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Zach pulled into the parking lot the next morning. Based off of the full parking lot, he was glad to see everyone had gotten his message about coming early to practice. Despite his momentary happiness he was not looking forward to the laborious process of cleanup, nor the large bill that would accompany all the replacements.

He climbed out of his beat-up car and saw a thin line of smoke rising from the school, its source appearing as though if it was coming from the band room. "Oh shit." Zach muttered, breaking out into a sprint. When he reached the other side of the school, he saw the drumline crowded around a small bonfire.

"I swear to God, if it's another freshman burning a mallet…." he grumbled, pushing through the crowd to put out the fire. Much to his surprise, he saw Jared standing over a pile of the vandalized drum heads, emptying a bottle of valve oil onto the growing flames. Curious, Zach went inside the band room and grinned in spite of himself. The old drum heads were gone, now replaced by better quality, and more expensive, heads. He reached into one of the stick bags and pulled out a drumstick, tapping around the edges of one of the snares. He repeated with the other drums and found they were perfectly tuned. "Bet the cymbals are still dead." He pulled open the drawer on the storage case containing them, and took a step back at the shiny metal that greeted his eyes. He picked one up turned it around, and ran outside.

Zach was in disbelief, but was sure a glance at the still-broken cymbals would bring him back down to Earth. Had anyone been around to witness it, they would have described Zach's face after he opened the cymbal bag as 'priceless.' "Who the hell bought brand new Zildjians?" Zach shouted as he ran outside, both pleased and horrified. "Does the idiot who did this know how expensive these are?" The cymbal players turned their heads and ran over to see the cymbal Zach was waving wildly in the air.

"Ooooooh" the cymbals said in awe. Zach handed it over to Amanda, one of the few cymbals he trusted, and approached the rest of the group.

"Who fixed everything?" He demanded. "I hope they know that there's no way that we'll be able to go to Dayton since we're now broke!"

"Jared did it," Ben explained. "And he used his own money." Zach's face flushed in anger.

"Don't think that just because you're able to throw around money means we're going to accept you!" Zach yelled at Jared. "Once someone's a Stonewall drummer, they're always a Stonewall drummer."

"Zach, cut it out!" Stefanie, bass drum one, said. "He hasn't done anything wrong."

"How are we supposed to know that he didn't set up this whole thing with his cronies, and then fixed it all in an effort to gain our trust?" Zach accused.

"Do you know how ridiculous you sound right now?" Gary, another bass drum, interrupted. "You're essentially saying 'He's from Stonewall, which must mean he's a criminal!'"

"But for all we know –"

"That's right Zach, we don't know." Maddie said, coming up from behind Zach. Janie followed closely behind. "Sorry we're late. What did I miss?" She glanced toward the parking lot where the fire was, and grinned.

"You started a bonfire without me?" She teased. "I'm hurt."

"I didn't do it." Zach said. "He did."

"Nice." Maddie said, drawing out the word. Jared couldn't help but smile at her, and tried to ignore the butterflies hatching in his stomach. Meanwhile, Janie stood behind Maddie while cautiously peering over her shoulder at Zach. Zach refused to look at Janie, and there was a small pang in her stomach.

"Well, I think that this act clears Jared of all the things he was accused of yesterday." Cameron, one of the few seniors, said. "Who agrees?" Everyone except Zach raised their hands. When she saw Zach's hand down, Janie quickly brought hers down in an attempt to get back on his good side.

"Great, so we're all on the same page." Maddie said. "Now that this is all done, everyone get inside for drumline practice!" They all groaned, but trudged inside anyway. Maddie stopped Jared as he tried to go inside. "Hey, can you put out the bonfire first? Last year we did that with all the crappy mallets after final exams, and the fire-marshal came and got us in trouble with Mr. Johnson." She shook her head, laughing at the crazy memory. Maddie entered the band room and Jared went out into the middle of the parking lot, circling the growing fire while trying to think of a way to stop the blaze.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Janie dared to look at Zach, now that the two of them were alone. They both had stayed to the side as everyone else went inside. "I think Maddie likes him." she commented, nodding her head toward Jared.

"Did you sleep with her too, or did she tell you that herself?" Zach said bitterly.

"Zach, that doesn't even make sense!" Janie shouted. "And I told you already, I did not cheat on you!" She looked at Jared. "His nose is too big."

Zach snorted against his will. "A bit vain, aren't we?" he asked.

"Hey, it's true." Janie shrugged. They stood there in awkward silence, shuffling their feet and avoiding eye contact. "So why don't you believe me?" she asked after a couple of minutes.

"Well… you have a history, you know?" Zach said.

"So do you." Janie retorted.

"I dunno. It freaks me out sometimes. I'm never entirely sure if you actually do give a shit about us or if this is another one of your flings." He said.

"You're not just a fling to me." Janie said. "I care about you so much, and I'd never want to hurt you in a million years." Her eyes got teary. "You're all I have now that Mark's gone." She started crying despite herself and Zach pulled her to his chest.

"I'm so sorry Janie." He whispered, petting her hair. A few minutes later Janie pulled her act together and looked up at Zach.

"Are we okay now?" she asked between sniffles

"Yeah, we are." he said, kissing her softly.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Maddie peeked her head out the band door. "Janie get your -" she started shouting, but stopped when she saw that Janie and Zach had made up. "Isn't that something?" She murmured to herself, happy to see things had mended themselves. She noticed Jared had successfully ended the fire, and was now kicking the ashes and melted beads of aluminum about in the parking lot. As she had a practice to get started, she shouted "Jared, get your ass over here!" He looked up, and then ran over.

"Sorry." he muttered.

"I'm going to make you sorry in thirty seconds if you don't get behind your instrument in the next thirty seconds!" she threatened, swatting his head lightly with the back of her hand. He went inside and she followed after him, leaving Zach and Janie alone yet again.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

After warm-ups were finished, Maddie went to the copy room. She returned a few minutes later with a thick stack of papers. She noticed Zach and Janie had still not come in, and assumed that the two of them went out for lunch. She sighed, mildly annoyed that she now had to deal with both battery and pit.

"Um, you guys can go out and do your own thing." Maddie said, giving the battery their respective parts. "I don't know what the usual deal is with learning parts, so just break up and do sectionals, I guess." After the battery had left, Maddie went up front and addressed the pit from Mr. Johnson's stool.

"So, before I hand out parts one and two to our show, I'd like to explain this year's theme a little bit." Maddie said. "Our concept this year is about the classic elements: earth, wind, water, and fire. We also added 'light' as our closer. I know it's a pretty common theme, but I think our take on it is going to set it apart from any of the other schools that have done this show in the past."

"Chris and Adam wrote this show, just like they did last year. Zach and I also put in some input on the music considering how we're around you guys a heck of a lot more and know what you're capable of. Our first competition is in a little over a month, and I think if he have a good work ethic, we'll have all of this learned and memorized in no time. So are we good to go?"

There were a few nods from people, but overall everyone had glazed-over eyes.

"Can we get the music now?" Hannah, the pit's senior, bluntly asked. Maddie sighed, and handed out the appropriate parts.

"Marimba one for me…" she murmured, putting it on her stand, "Marimba one for Janie….." Janie's eyes widened at this, but took the part anyway. "Marimba two for Hannah…"

"Woah, wait a minute!" Hannah and Janie said at the same time.

"This can't be right." Hannah continued. "I'm a senior, a SENIOR damnit! What the hell gives you the right to give Janie my part?"

"It was never your part." Maddie explained. "Chris and I agree that Janie earned the part that she's on now."

"But-" Hannah began, but Maddie silenced her with one of her famous glares.

After Maddie finished handing out parts she beamed at everyone from behind her instrument, excited to get started. "Alrighty then. Let's go!"

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Three hours of practicing later, Jared felt like his hands were going to fall off. There were shiny red blisters on the outside of his middle fingers, and they throbbed painfully underneath the tight band-aids Maddie had put on a few minutes ago. He stared at his hands sadly for a few moments, and then resumed packing up his equipment. After throwing his music in a pile in the back of the percussion storage closet, Jared waved goodbye to Maddie.

"Don't forget: keep the band-aids on for tonight and then take them off after tomorrow morning. If you don't, your fingers will heal, but you'll get more blisters." Maddie reminded him. "And I'll know if you listened, since we have practice tomorrow after school... See you later Jared." At this, she picked up her mallet bag and left the band room, walking to her house.

"Damnit." Jared cursed, mostly because he was in the presence of other people. As he climbed into his mom's car, however, he was practically grinning from ear to ear.

* * *

**Ah, the good old days of burning all the crappy/broken mallets at the end of marching band season :)**

**Now for the usual: I'll try to get the next chapter of this up A.S.A.P., yadda yadda yadda. Read and review, and I shall be yours.**

**~The Sound of Drums**


	12. Chapter 12

**Wow. I honestly can not believe how long it's been since I've last updated this thing. 8 months? Really now? *Hits self***

**I'm so sorry for the extremely long wait! Now that marching season is done, and indoor is starting, I should have more time now to write… and I've got great plans for this thing.**

**Thank you so much for waiting (or forgetting, either works) all this time. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 12

The last lesson before winter break was a bittersweet moment for Jared. On one hand, he'd get to relax for two drumline-free weeks; on the other hand, he was actually starting to enjoy drumline now that people were being more friendly toward him.

Lost in his thoughts, Jared earned himself a rap on the head from Maddie.

"Pay attention to your mallets!" She snapped. "You're playing on the nodes instead of the center of the bar again!"

"Sorry." Jared muttered. Maddie looked surprised by his unusual display of cooperativeness.

"Just don't be stupid." She quickly said, picking up the Dr. Beat. She turned it on and adjusted the tempo. "Okay, now play that exercise at 62 bpm."

"Are you crazy?!" Jared asked. "That's way too slow!"

"Deal with it." Maddie replied. "Now start." As Jared grudgingly played his scales, Maddie smiled internally. There was the Jared she was used to.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

"Now make sure to practice four mallet technique over winter break." Maddie instructed Jared.

"Will I get more blisters?"

"Yes. If you're lucky, you'll get Jesus hands."

"What?" Jared said.

"Like, you'll get blisters in the center of your palms and if you play enough they'll eventually turn into dark callouses. See, Jesus hands," she explained, holding up her own hands to demonstrate.

Jared laughed. "What the hell is wrong with you Eastwood people?"

"What's wrong with you Stonewall freaks?"

"Freakiness is in the eye of the beholder."

"Touche." Maddie grinned. "By any chance, are you invited to Janie's Christmas party? Like, I know she lives next door and all, but I wasn't really sure if she wanted you to come..."

"There's a party?" Jared asked dumbly.

"Forget I said anything." Maddie said, quickly putting away her mallets in her bag.

"You can't do that to me!" Jared shouted. "Tell me about it!"

"Have a good break Jared." Maddie called, briskly walking to the door. "Make sure you practice!" She left the band room and ran across the street. Meanwhile, Jared shoved the xylophone back into its spot against the wall, thoroughly pissed off.

"I'll be seeing you sooner than you think." Jared said to himself, not exactly sure what he meant by that. Either way, it still sounded cool.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

"Hey Mom." Jared called from the kitchen table as she walked into the house. "Dinner's in the fridge."

"Thanks Hun." She replied, an annoyed tone to her voice. Jared looked around the corner into the hallway, and could see his mom brushing the snow violently off of her coat. Within the past week the temperature had dropped dramatically to reach normal levels.

"Is there something wrong...?"

"Oh no." She said, completely sarcastic. "The neighbors are having a party currently, and their ever so courteous guests decided to park right in front of our freaking driveway and all down the streets. So I had to drive down four-and-a-half blocks, and then walked all the way back home in three-inch heels and a suede coat. It was great fun, let me tell you."

"I'm sorry...?"

"And they need to turn down the damn volume!" She went over to the window, opening it wide and shouting: "Did you hear me?! TURN IT DOWN!" Jared felt that if anything the volume went up a few decibels just to spite his mother. His mom shook her head. "I'm so glad you're not friends with that damn daughter of theirs. What parent lets their kid have a crazy party like that? Then again, they're never home anyway." She shook her head, then forced a smile onto her face. "What did Yoko make today?"

"Spaghetti and meatballs." Jared answered, glad the subject had changed.

"Aright. Thank you." she said, kissing the top of his head. He squirmed away.

"Mom, I'm not five." he reminded her.

"I know." She said. "It's fun to annoy you sometimes."

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Janie sat on the couch, Zach's arm wrapped around her. She currently was enjoying the few seconds she had to relax before she had to go out and be the life of the party again.

The door bell rang and Janie got up to answer it. "Maddie!" Janie said, hugging her before relieving Maddie of a platter of food she had brought. "It's about time you showed up; the rest of the line is here already!"

"Whatever happened to being fashionably late?" Maddie asked, laughing. She followed Janie into the kitchen and leaned against the counter. "Who else is coming?"

Janie put the platter in the fridge. "A few people from marching band and my cousin Rachel." Janie replied, her head still in the refrigerator.

"No Jared?" Maddie asked.

"Of course not!" Janie snorted, slamming the fridge shut. "He may be on the line, but he's still a Stonewall kid. Besides, I'm pretty sure Zach would kill him about 20 seconds."

"Can't go getting blood on the carpet, now can we?" Maddie said sarcastically.

"Of course." Janie replied. "Sparking cider?"

"Huh?"

"Cider? A common drink at Christmas parties?" Janie said, holding up a bottle.

Maddie shook her head, holding up a cup of Starbucks. "I'm all set, thanks."

"Now go join everyone else." Janie instructed. "It's a party; you should have some fun. Besides, you've been working too hard during drumline lately." Maddie opened her mouth to protest, but Janie interrupted her. "Go. Now."

Maddie shrugged and went into the living room, plopping down on the couch.

"Hey Maddie." Ben said, sitting next to her.

"Hey Ben." Maddie replied.

"Some party, huh? You totally missed it earlier when we pranked Max by putting saran wrap on the toilet seat."

"I'm sure Janie was ecstatic..."

The rest of the conversation consisted of worthless small talk, the majority of it coming from Ben. Meanwhile, Maddie gazed out the window and choked on her coffee. Jared was staring through the living room window at her.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Jared snuck out of the house, knowing his mom wouldn't try bothering him when his bedroom door was closed. He slid down on the rain gutter on the side of the house, and landed on his back in the fluffy snow. He got up and hopped the fence between his and Janie's yard, landing with a thud on the shoveled driveway.

"You've got to be kidding me." He groaned, clutching the back of his head. There was a decent sized bump where it had hit the ground.

Jared got up and ran around back. The blinds were open, so he climbed on top of a trashcan and peered over the edge into the living room. The house inside was full of crazy, partying teenagers, most of whom he recognized as drummers from the line. He also saw Maddie sitting on the couch with Ben. He was obviously flirting with her; Maddie was oblivious. Ben stretched and reached an arm around her, who was either ignoring the attention or more unaware than Jared thought. The poor girl looked bored out of her mind.

Jared glanced around the rest of the room and noticed that there were quite a few sprigs of mistletoe, the majority clustered above the couch. Putting two and two together, Jared's hands clenched and the tips of his ears turned bright pink. How DARE Ben try to make a move on Maddie, HIS Mad- Jared stopped mid-thought, shaking his head. The cold weather was getting to his head.

Jared looked toward Maddie again and saws she was looking directly at him through the window. She spit out her coffee in surprise and Jared ducked underneath the windowsill, hoping nobody else had seen him. He was now determined to get into that party.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0o0o.o0O0o.

"Are you okay?!" Ben asked, patting Maddie's back.

"The... window." She croaked, pointing. She coughed a little, trying to get the remaining coffee out of her lungs. "He was there!"

"What are you talking about?" Ben asked, glancing over at the window.

"I swear, I saw - "

"Maddie, there's nothing there." Ben assured, reaching out to take the coffee cup. "Maybe you've had enough caffeine for one day."

"Don't touch my coffee!" She snapped, pulling it away from him. Ben jumped up.

"I think I'm going to get some punch..." Ben said, quickly leaving. Maddie sighed and looked out the window again.

"I could have sworn I saw Jared." She said, more to convince herself she wasn't going crazy than anything else. Jared's head popped into view again, destroying Maddie's peace. She jumped up and ran over to the window, opening it a crack.

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

"I'm here for the party." Jared replied, opening up the window more so he could slide inside.

Maddie pushed his head out. "No you aren't!" she said. "You weren't invited!"

"So? Where's your rebellious Eastwood drumline mentality?"

"Goodbye Jared." Maddie said curtly, slamming the window frame on his fingers. His yelp brought a smile to Maddie's face, and Jared yanked his fingers out. Maddie closed it shut all the way, and locked it. Then she reached up and closed the blinds on Jared's pained face. She sat back on the couch, took another sip of her coffee, and grinned.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

"Go to hell!" Jared shouted at the window, knowing she probably wouldn't hear him. He sat on the cold ground for a while, letting himself calm down while he tried to think up a plan. He casually circled around the house, looking for some weak spot where he could get in.

Jared found it a few minutes later. It was an open window, which seemed to lead to a small bathroom on the second floor. He anxiously looked around for a ladder and his prayers were answered after breaking into the shed in the backyard.

"Thank you God." Jared muttered, leaning the wooden ladder against the wall of the house. It shook as he climbed up it, but Jared paid it no mind. When he reached the top step, his nose barely peeked over the window ledge. Jared pulled himself up, and cursed as the ladder fell away from his feet.

After dangling 15 feet in the air for a few hair-raising seconds, Jared managed to scramble inside the bathroom. Instead of wasting time observing the hot pink walls, he went into the hallway and down the stairs, grinning ear from ear.

He noticed Maddie and the others were in the dining room, picking finger foods off of platters resting on a long dining room table. She looked up, and her face turned pale. Jared waved, smirking.

"Excuse me a moment." he heard her say as she nearly dropped her plate onto a side table. She hurried over to the steps and went up them, passing by Jared.

"What the hell are you doing?" she hissed, turning around so that the rest of the guests couldn't see them.

"Joining the festivities."

"Don't you dare!" She snapped.

"Why not? I'm as much a part of the drumline as anyone else."

"Because when Zach gets his hands on you, your face is going to look like a Picasso painting when he's finished."

Jared's face paled a moment, then regained its normal color. "Uh-huh. Right."

"She has a point you know." Zach said.

"Thank you!" Maddie exclaimed, "... Oh shit." Zach and Janie were at the bottom of the stairs, glaring at Jared. Everyone else was slowly gathering behind them, wondering what the commotion was about.

"Oh shit." Jared and Maddie repeated.

* * *

**Once again, sorry for the (extremely) late post! I'll hopefully be writing more, and more often, so be on the lookout :)**

**~The Sound of Drums**


	13. Chapter 13

**Okay, so maybe I'm not updating as much as I've hoped. But I have a lot of stuff written down in my notebook (for chemistry... oopsies).**

**In the meantime, enjoy the next chapter. :)**

* * *

Chapter 13

"What are you doing in my house Jared?" Janie asked, about ready to smack him. Jared opened his mouth to speak but realized that the answer "Just to see if I could" probably wasn't the best response.

"I dunno." he muttered.

"What do you mean 'I dunno'?" Zach said, doing a remarkably good impression of Jared. "You trying to rob Janie's house or something?

"No..."

"Then why are you here?"

"Just to see if I could do it!" He quickly shouted.

"Right..." Zach said, an evil glint in his eye. "I think you were here to see Maddie."

"Ew! No!" Maddie and Jared shouted simultaneously. Maddie's face turned bright pink, and people snickered.

"There's no need to be ashamed. Come on, give your boyfriend a kiss Maddie."

"He's not my boyfriend!" she exclaimed.

"Zach, stop." Janie said. "Let's just kick Jared out and get back to the party. There's no need for this."

"Oh no. I want to see the happy couple kiss." Zach said.

"He's not my boyfriend!" Maddie repeated.

"Fine then." Zach shrugged. "Someone get the mistletoe from above the couch."

"Don't you dare Hannah!" Maddie screamed, seeing her start walking. Hannah grinned, and returned a few minutes later with a large sprig. "You are running SO many laps next practice." Maddie threatened. Hannah didn't seem to care, and handed off the plant to Zach.

Zach climbed up the steps, holding the mistletoe in front of him and making kissing noises. As it grew closer to them, Jared suddenly pushed aside Zach. He ran down the stairs and around the side into the living room, throwing open one of the windows; then he jumped down to the concrete, landing rather gracefully on his feet; it took him by surprise that he hadn't managed to hurt himself. After glancing around to make sure no one was following him he scaled the fence and ran inside his house, laughing with exhilaration.

"Come at me bro!" he shouted, bucking to no one in particular. He slammed the front door shut and went into the kitchen for hot coco.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

"Get him!" Zach shouted after everyone had been frozen in surprise. He and some of the other battery kids ran after Jared. As they approached the window, Zach stopped.

"Be careful." he warned, cautiously climbing out. "It's bare concrete on the bottom." Vishnu went next, jumping out. He screamed as his body twisted and hit the ground.

"What did I tell you?!" Zach snapped, running over.

"My wrist!" Vishnu moaned. Zach cursed, looking at Vishnu's quickly swelling wrist.

"I think he broke it." Max said. He grabbed it, and Vishnu screamed again. "Yeah, it's broken. We need to get him to a hospital."

"But we've got our first competition in three weeks!" Zach said, ignoring Vishnu's well being for a moment. "He can't have broken his wrist!"

"Zach, we can worry about this later." Max said. Zach stomped away, going back inside Janie's house.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

The girls watched as the guys pursued Jared; Most were shaking their heads sadly or chuckling to themselves.

"Well... that was interesting." Janie laughed, still playing the perfect hostess. Everyone laughed together, almost on cue. "I think it's about time to go home anyway." she said, receiving a few good natured groans.

"Thank you all for coming." she said to people as they left, handing out little gift bags of homemade cookies. When most of the guests were gone, Zach came back inside and got his keys off of the side table.

"Where are you going?" Janie asked worriedly.

"Vishnu broke his wrist, and we have to take him to the emergency room." Zach replied quietly, so the remaining people wouldn't hear.

Janie gasped. "We have a competition in three weeks!"

"I know." Zach said. "Please don't mention it to Maddie, or she'll start freaking out."

"Alright. Drive carefully; the roads are slippery."

"I will." He pecked Janie on the lips and ran outside, throwing on his coat. Janie sighed sadly, then turned to the remaining guests.

"So who's staying for the after-party again?" she asked.

"Wait, a party after a party? Are you crazy?!" Maddie said.

"Actually, it's more of a sleepover. It was in the invitations..."

"You told me about this party over the phone."

"Because I ran out of invitations." Janie said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "So do you want to stay?"

"It's better than walking home." Maddie shrugged. "Sure, I'll stay."

"Great!" Janie said, smiling mischievously to herself. "This will work out perfectly."

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

The verdict was in: Vishnu's wrist was most definitely broken and wouldn't be healed for about two months. Zach dropped his head at the news. He was sitting in an uncomfortable chair in Vishnu's room while the rest of the line stood outside in the hallway. Vishnu had managed to break his left, and therefore weaker, hand, which was currently in a cast held up by a bright green sling. Zach knew that in two months the majority of Vishnu's snare chops would be gone; either way, whether the cast was on for a month or a year, the line needed a replacement snare for the rest of the season.

"Drumline! Group meeting!" He called out into the hallway. They filed into the small room and formed a semi-circle around the hospital bed, earning glares from the nurses and doctors passing by.

"As you know, Vishnu's taken an unfortunate tumble -" Zach began.

"Sorry." Vishnu mumbled.

"So now we need to find a new snare. Any ideas on where to find one?" Zach asked.

"How about pit?" Haley suggested. Everyone looked at her like she had five heads.

"She has a point." Eric, her twin on cymbals added. "A lot of them have been dying to be in battery for a while."

"Do you know how much bullshit Maddie is going to end up giving us?" Danny, another snare, countered. "She'll kill us if we steal someone from her already pathetically small pit."

"I'll deal with Maddie – don't worry about her." Zach said. "But who are we going to take?"

"How about Jared?" Vishnu suggested after a few moments.

It was dead silent, and everyone stared at Vishnu. It wasn't that most of them had a problem with Jared; they just knew Zach did. Zach began laughing hysterically, breaking the awkward silence, and wiped a tear away from his eye. "You can't be serious." He said.

"I'm dead serious." Vishnu replied. "Haven't you seen him screw around on an extra drum before practice?"

"He's a sophomore." Zach said.

"So is Haley, and she plays quads."

"He hasn't earned the right!"

"He's talented, for God's sake!"

"I'm not having that STONEWALL freak on the line, end of story!" Zach spat.

"Then you're going to have a hard time finding someone else." Vishnu replied with equal venom.

"Come on Zach, who else do we know that has playing AND marching experience?" Max asked.

"Why are you all on his side?!" Zach shouted.

"We're not on his side - we're only thinking of the line!" Ben explained. "We know it's a shitty situation, but this one of our only solutions."

"It's this, or have one less snare." Vishnu added, finalizing the end of the argument. "I hope you make the right decision."

Zach sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He felt more exhausted than he had in a while. "Vishnu, are you positive you want him as your replacement?"

Vishnu nodded. "Zach, I'm almost positive he's better than I am. Yes, I'm sure."

"Okay, fine. All in favor of Jared on snare, raise your hands." Zach instructed. All 17 people raised their hands with the exception of Zach. His face fell.

"Alright then..." Zach said hesitantly. "I guess Jared is now officially a part of the Eastwood High School Indoor Drumline."

* * *

**I would have gotten this out a while ago, but alas, I was busy celebrating my promotion to section leader for drumline! *Pumps fist in air* Which was the reason why I spent awhile hunting chasing/threatening/recruiting people for indoor drumline instead of writing... We were a few people down, but all of the spots are filled now, which makes me happy.**

**ANYWAY, I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving (yes, I'm aware it was a while ago). As my gift to you, I'll try to get a new chapter out about once a week. At least :)**

**~The Sound of Drums**


	14. Chapter 14

**Enjoy the next chapter of Elemental, courtesy of my 5th period Algebra class!**

* * *

Chapter 14

Maddie was about ready to kill herself. One, because she was still embarrassed by the fiasco that Jared caused at Janie's party; two because she was having her nails painted bright pink against her will.

"Isn't this fun?" Janie asked, painting a small flower onto Maddie's thumb. She knew full well Maddie was not pleased.

Maddie winced in emotional pain. "Not particularly."

"Why not?" Janie asked innocently, painting a heart onto Maddie's pinkie. Meanwhile, Anna, a rack player, painted a rainbow on Maddie's big toe.

"Because my nails look like the butts of my sister's My Little Ponies." Maddie moaned, desperately wanting to wipe the polish off onto the floor.

"Fine then," Janie said, finishing up the last nail with a smiley face, "We'll do something else."

"Thank you!" Maddie sighed, relieved.

"So… Truth or Dare?" Janie asked.

"Never mind," Maddie said quickly, afraid of what they were going to do to her. "Let's go back to the nails."

"Overruled!" Haley gleefully shouted, walking in.

"Yay! You made it!" Janie said, jumping up and hugging her.

"Did you honestly think I'd miss watching you guys torment each other?" she asked, sitting down. "But anyway, I'll take a dare, thank you very much."

"I dare you to… ding dong ditch Jared's house…" Janie said. "Wearing nothing but a large t-shirt." Haley rolled her eyes, but laughed good-naturedly.

"Here's something!" Tina shouted after digging through the pile of clothes in Janie's closet. It was last year's marching band t-shirt. "I didn't know you wore a large." she commented, looking at the tag before handing it to Haley.

"It's probably Zach's." Janie said, blushing.

"Hey guys, can you turn around while I put it on?" Haley asked. The girls did so, and turned back around when Haley said it was okay. "So how do I look?" she asked, posing.

"Like you're going to freeze your butt off outside." Maddie commented sarcastically, but no one heard her. A camera flashed and Haley blinked, surprised. She ran over and looked at the preview screen.

"That better not show up on Facebook!" she shrieked, trying to reach for the "delete" button over Tina's shoulder.

"Do the dare, and we can deal with the picture later." Janie said. "Now go!" Haley ran down the stairs, and the girls stood on the balcony, looking at Jared's house next door. Haley cautiously approached the door, rang the doorbell repeatedly, and bolted around the fence and ducked down.

Jared's mom opened the door and instantly looked at Janie's house when there was nobody there. Janie and the others squatted down, praying she didn't see them. "I swear to God, I will call your parents if you try that one more time!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, slamming the door shut. Haley peered around to make sure the coast was clear, and then sprinted inside the house, closing the door behind her.

"Well, that was fun." she said, walking into the room. Everyone laughed and cheered. "Can I have my clothes back now?" They turned around again, letting Haley change, and continued the game.

"Okay, you get to choose someone now." Maddie told Janie.

"Truth or dare... Maddie!" Haley shouted.

"Shit." Maddie said under her breath. "Um... truth?" The others groaned.

"Aw, come on." Tina said, poking Maddie in the side, "That's no fun!"

"Way to be a spoil sport," Janie said, "As usual."

"Excuse me?" Maddie said, jumping up. "Me? A spoil sport?! I can be fun when I want to!"

"I dunno..." Janie said hesitantly, "You seem to act otherwise during practice."

"You know what?" Maddie asked, poking her finger in Janie's shoulder angrily.

"What?"

"I'll take the damn dare!"

"I dare you to go next door and go into Jared's room. And you have to take something back to prove you actually did it." Haley said without skipping a beat.

"NO!" Maddie shrieked.

"What, are you chicken?" Haley asked. She and Janie made clucking sounds.

"No, but - "

"Then go."

Maddie growled in frustration, and threw on her hoodie sweatshirt. "We're done with the game after this." she told them.

"Whatever. Better go quick, before you get caught." Anna said. Janie pushed Maddie out her bedroom door, slamming the door in her face. Maddie instantly regretted that she agreed to stay overnight at all.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

"Shit." Maddie muttered repeatedly. She was hiding behind a bush next to the door of Jared's house, holding a branch broken off from the bush. She reached up toward the doorbell with said branch and rang the bell, quickly pulling it back. The door opened, and Jared's mother cursed loudly as she stomped away and slammed it shut behind her.

Maddie thrust branch into the doorway and although the door nearly broke it in half, it didn't close. She thanked the patron saint of criminals, if such a thing existed, as she slid into the house and silently closed the door. After running up the steps, she saw with a door plastered in percussion stickers, much like her own bedroom door at home. She assumed it to be Jared's and cautiously opened the door.

Inside the room was a small Asian woman, who was changing the bed sheets. "Can I help you?" she asked with a light accent, turning around.

"Actually, yes. I'm Jared's girlfriend." Maddie lied.

"I didn't know he had one."

"He's really shy about that sort of thing - I'm sure you know how he is."

The woman laughed and nodded. "Too true. I'm Yoko, the housekeeper. And you are...?"

"Libby." Maddie said, knowing full well this was Jared's ex; there were always advantages to having an ally in Stonewall drumline. "It's our one year anniversary."

"Do you want me to go get him?" Yoko offered.

"NO!" Maddie said quickly. "I mean, no, I'd like it to be a surprise... if you get what I'm saying." She winked. Yoko thought a moment, and her eyes widened.

"Ooooooh!" she said, nodding. "Well, no point in finishing this then," she said, tossing the rest of the sheets on the bed and closing the door behind her. Maddie sighed with relief and looked around for something to "borrow." Finally she found it: a pair of drumsticks taped in the traditional Stonewall HS style.

"Perfect." Maddie whispered, sliding them into the pocket of her hoodie. She began walking toward the stairs, but she heard a heaving stomping up the stairs accompanied by Jared's voice muttering to himself. "Shit!" Maddie hissed, running back into Jared's room. She frantically looked around for somewhere to hide.

The door began to open and Maddie froze like a deer in headlights.

"Jared?" Yoko called.

"What?" he asked, stopping. Maddie took this opportunity to dive under Jared's bed, grabbing some sheets to use as camouflage.

"Don't forget to bring down your laundry tonight. If you don't, I won't clean them and then you'll have to be naked the rest of the week."

"Whatever."

"I mean it!"

"Fine." Jared sighed, going into his room. Maddie's breath caught when he jumped on the bed, causing the springs holding up the mattress to hang a mere two inches above her head. After a few moments Maddie relaxed, crossing her arms behind her head. Maddie knew Jared would fall asleep eventually; it was a matter of how long it took. In the meantime, Maddie at least was trying to make the best of it.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Jared's sighed sadly, his fingers twitching. He knew he should be practicing mallets, but he desperately wanted to play snare. So, as usual, Jared gave into his impulses and reached under the bed for his practice pad.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

"Where is my pad?" Maddie heard Jared mutter, catching her attention. She desperately searched for it while dodging his groping hand. She finally found it under her shoulder and passed it off to Jared, breathing another sigh of relief.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

"Ah-ha!" he shouted triumphantly, sitting back up. He got up and walked over to his bookshelf where he kept his percussion equipment. Jared reached down to pick up his Stonewall sticks, but they weren't there. "Where are they?!" he shouted, horrified. He ran out into the hallway. "Yoko!"

"What?" she shouted back, at the opposite end of the hallway.

"What did you do with my drumsticks?!"

"I haven't touched them." Yoko said.

"Was anyone here earlier? Like Mom?" he asked, trying to remain calm.

"There was a girl, Libby, who was in here earlier. She said it was your one year anniversary. Didn't you see her?"

"Libby and I broke up a month ago." Jared said. "Why in the world would she be here?"

"Don't ask me." Yoko said, going into the hallway while holding a basket of laundry against her hip. "I'm just the housekeeper." She said it in a sarcastic way that indicated to Maddie that Jared had used that line against Yoko at some point. "Try looking in your closet to make sure you didn't misplace it." Jared ran back into his room, grumbling about how he would never put them drumsticks in his closet.

As Jared opened the bedroom door, which he didn't recall closing, a blast of cold air hit him. He immediately looked toward the window and saw it was wide open. His bed sheets were tied around the head-board in a hurried and messy knot. He ran over to the window, looking down, and saw that it went down far enough that it was a safe dropping distance to the snow. He heard a roar and saw a car zooming away at the opposite end of the street.

Jared frantically tore apart his room, hoping that his sticks were still there; his worst suspicions were confirmed when he wasn't able to find them.

"Stonewall stole the sticks back because they don't trust me anymore!" he moaned. "How could Libby do this to me?!" He pulled back in his sheets and threw them on the floor, slamming the window shut. Throwing himself onto his bed, he felt more betrayed than any other time in his life.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Maddie sat behind the fence, panting. She got up a few moments later after hearing the window close and went back inside Janie's house. When Maddie reentered the bedroom, a giant smile on her face, everyone looked at her in surprise.

"What took you so long?!" Janie shouted. "We were so worried that you - " she stopped when Maddie took the drumsticks out of her pocket. "Are those...?"

"The snare line sticks from Stonewall Drumline? Why, yes, I believe they are." Maddie said, twirling them between her fingers; there was a slight flush on her face from the excitement.

"How did you do it?" Haley instantly asked, surprised.

"That doesn't matter!" Maddie said, a hint of craziness in her voice. "That was possibly one of the most fantastic, exhilarating, idiotic, and liberating things I've done EVER!" She paused for a moment as she calmed herself down. "But there is no way in hell I'm ever doing that again."

* * *

**Hopefully the next chapter will be up. Thanks so much to all of you who have reviewed, especially Closetbrilliance who has read and reviewed every single chapter in ALL of my stories.**

**All of you should follow her lead, or at least review once in a while. It takes all of 30 seconds to click the button and type what you think. I WANT to hear from you, be it positive or negative - I want this story as awesome as possible! You're the ones who have to read it, so you should have a say.**

**I hope all of you enjoy the holidays - not sure if I'll post another chapter before Christmas, but I'll try.**

**~The Sound of Drums**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Eastwood Drumline was in Dayton, eagerly waiting to hear the scores and placements of those who made finals. Maddie stood in the front of the block of people on the floor, next to Zach. She nervously drummed her fingers against her leg, trying not to look nervous.

"In 14½ place, Eastwood drumline." The announcer said, sounding rather bored. There was polite clapping from the other lines, and boos from the audience. Maddie looked around in dismay and confusion.

"But there are only 10 lines in finals!" Maddie shouted, walking forward to get the trophy with Zach. They resumed their places.

"And in first place, Stonewall drumline!" Stonewall cheered, leaping around in their uniforms like maniacs. As they walked forward to get their trophy, they ripped off their uniforms, revealing clown costumes. Maddie looked down, and noticed she had on a crimson coat-tails jacket and held a ring master's whip in one hand.

"What the hell?" she asked. She looked at Zach, who had become a tiger, pacing and growling menacingly; behind her the rest of the drumline had turned into zoo animals. A small brown mouse climbed up onto Maddie's shoulder, and she screamed while trying to shake it off. She could feel its claws digging slightly into her shoulder.

"You have something of mine." a high-pitched, squeaky voice said into Maddie's ear. Maddie jumped.

"Jared?!" The mouse nodded, and then an eagle swooped down and ate him.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Maddie bolted upright, involuntarily letting out a yelp.

"What's wrong?" Janie said, not looking away from the window.

"Sorry. Bad dream." Maddie said, walking over to join the others, who were also looking out the window.

"It's about time you woke up." Haley laughed. Maddie glanced at the clock.

"What do you mean? It's almost three in the morning." Maddie inquired.

"You've been missing it - Jared's been tearing apart his room looking for those drumsticks for the past few hours." Anna said, scooting over so Maddie could take a look. Maddie stayed put, a pang of guilt hitting her in the stomach.

"Has he really been looking that long for them?" she asked. Janie nodded.

"He was howling at the top of his lungs a while ago." she explained. "Oh, and someone called your phone by the way."

"Geez, thanks for letting me know!" Maddie snapped, digging through her bag to find it. She pulled it out and hit the voicemail button.

"Hey Maddie, this is Zach." The message began, "I'm sure Haley's already told you the whole story, so can you please pass on the news to Jared before either of us forgets? Thanks. Bye." Maddie looked at Haley suspiciously.

"Haley, why were you late to the sleepover?" Maddie asked.

"I was picking up my stuff for tonight." she lied.

"Oh." Maddie muttered, not convinced. She called Zach back on his phone.

"Yeah...?" a groggy voice answered.

"Zach?" Maddie hesitantly asked.

"Who is this?" he groaned. "It's three in the morning."

"I know, I'm sorry. This is Maddie."

"Oh!" Maddie heard a creak as Zach sat up on his bed. "Did you call Jared yet?"

"What do you mean?"

"Didn't Haley tell you?"

"Didn't Haley tell me what Zach?" Maddie asked, confused. Haley's head snapped around when she heard her name, and she paled.

"I'll be right back." she said quietly, leaving the room.

"Vishnu broke his wrist." Zach said, becoming more awake by the minute. "So I need Jared to take his place."

"Wait, on snare!?"

"Yeah... we couldn't find anyone else, I'm sorry!"

Maddie tensed her jaw. "Certain other people are going to be sorry when I find them." Maddie said. "Who else knew?"

"Pretty much everyone."

"Except me!"

"In my defense, Haley said she was going to break it to you slowly."

"Slow my ass, she hasn't mentioned anything at all!"

Zach was silent on the other end a minute. "I see."

Maddie took a deep breath, and slowly let it out. "Go back to sleep Zach. I'll make sure to let Jared know. Sorry for waking you up"

"Okay then. Enjoy your winter break."

"Bye." Maddie replied simply, hanging up the phone. She sat there a minute; everyone was silent. Finally she slowly got up to her feet. Everyone stared at her. Maddie grinned over-sweetly and went out onto the balcony. After shouting obscenities at the top of her lungs until she was satisfied, Maddie went back inside.

"Now that I'm done with that, I'm going back to bed. Goodnight." she said. She crawled into her sleeping bag, resisting the overwhelming urge to strangle them all. When Maddie fell asleep a few minutes later, Janie looked at Hannah.

"Can you go get Haley?" she asked. "I think she's currently hiding in the basement."

.o0O0Oo.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Breakfast the next morning was silent as a graveyard. Maddie was unusually calm, although she was cutting her pancakes rather violently.

"So how long did you all know?" Maddie asked.

"Excuse me?" Janie said.

"How long did you all know about Vishnu?"

"When you were in Jared's house." Anna admitted, not looking Maddie in the eye. The rest of the meal was silent. Finally Maddie finished, and stood up.

"Thank you for the lovely evening." Maddie said, still deadly calm. "Now if you excuse me, I have a lesson to teach."

"Thanks for coming." Janie said, perfect hostess as ever, opening the door for Maddie. Maddie nodded, and left.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

"Well Jared, I've got good news and bad news." Maddie said at the end of the lesson. Jared's fingers were throbbing again. "Which do you want to hear first?"

"Um, the good news, I guess." he said.

"The good news is you're really getting the hang of this." Maddie beamed. Jared smiled back.

"What's the bad news?"

Maddie was silent a while. "They need you to play snare on the line."

"Stonewall?!" Jared asked, thinking that was the reason why his snare sticks were gone.

"No, us. As in, Eastwood."

Jared's face paled and he shook his head. "No, I'm staying in pit!"

"Oh, come on!" Maddie shouted. "You wanted to be on snare when you first got here!"

"Maddie, I didn't realize that the lead snare was a psychopath!" Jared shouted back.

"You're being a complete wuss about this."

"You're being a complete bitch about this!"

Maddie glared. "Do you know how many sophomores have made snare in the 56 year history of this school? Eight, including you."

"So? Eastwood isn't my school!" Jared protested.

"It is now, so deal with it."

"You need pit people!"

"We've dealt with worse." Maddie shrugged.

"I'm not going, and you can't make me." Jared crossed his arms, supposedly finalizing the matter. Maddie was not finished, however.

"You listen, and you listen good." she threated, jabbing Jared in the chest. "You are in Eastwood high school right now, not your precious Stonewall; You're needed in battery more; you're BETTER at snare; you like snare more." Maddie poked him with each statement she made. "Now you are going to play the effing snare drum, or you're out of the group completely. Got it?!"

Jared's eyes grew wide, and he quickly nodded. "Yes ma'am."

Maddie smiled bittersweetly. "Now that that's all settled, want to grab a quick bite to eat for lunch?"

"Sure." Jared replied, not wanting to receive any more of Maddie's wrath. They put away the xylophone and headed toward the door.

"Oh, and Jared?"

"Yes?"

"Don't call me ma'am."

* * *

**Thank you to all of my new reviewers. Keep it up!**

**I hope all of you enjoy the holidays. See you next year :D**

**~The Sound of Drums**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

As Jared and Maddie hopped the fence, cutting through the apartments as usual, a million questions ran through Jared's mind about battery. He was too afraid to vocalize any of these to Maddie, so he stayed quiet.

"Is something wrong?" Maddie asked Jared, looking at him.

"No, why?" he asked.

"You're unusually quiet today. Talk already!" Maddie demanded playfully. The friendliness of her comment went over Jared's head, causing him to babble about nothing. "On second thought, do whatever you want." Maddie interrupted, shaking her head. She pushed aside a dead bush's branches, and the two of them entered the shopping center.

"Okay, now where do you want to go? I'm not sure what's open, but we'll do our best." Maddie said.

"I dunno. Where do you want to go?" Jared replied.

"I asked you first. You choose."

"So? You're older. Age before beauty."

Something caught Maddie's eye, and she punched Jared's arm suddenly; he grimaced, caught off guard. "What the hell was that for?" he groaned.

"Yellow punch buggy, no punch back!" Maddie shouted, grinning. "Let's go to McDonalds."

"I have no idea how those two ideas connected in your head," Jared said, rubbing his sore arm, "And for a section leader and a junior, you're kinda immature." He held open the door for Maddie, and she smiled as a blast of warm air from the heating vents hit her face as they went inside.

"I'm in drumline, what do you expect?" Maddie said, pulling out her wallet.

"Why do I have the feeling that's your excuse for everything?" Jared asked.

"Because it's every drummer's excuse." she explained. "For example, let's say you didn't do your homework. When your teacher asks why, you reply 'I'm in drumline and didn't get a chance to do it because practice ran really late last night.'"

"Or when you don't want to run laps in gym and your teacher asks why, you can say 'I'm in drumline and we had a really intense practice, so now my calves are sore'?" Jared suggested after a few minutes.

"Exactly!" Maddie said, pleased Jared had caught onto one of the great Eastwood drumline traditions: evading work.

"Are you two ready to order?" the cashier snapped, getting impatient. She glanced at her watch.

"No, not yet." Jared said.

"You have been standing there forever! Why not?" she asked.

"Because! I'm in drumline!" Jared declared, proud of himself. Maddie's head dropped.

"I think you're done with that." Maddie said, dragging him away from the counter so others could order. "Why don't you grab a table while I order?"

"Fine." Jared said grudgingly. "I'll have a burger, a large fries, and a soda." He shuffled over to a tall table with spinning chairs. As he waited for Maddie to get back Jared spun on one of them, his hair flying everywhere.

"And you call me immature." Maddie laughed, putting the tray full of food on the table.

"You've got to admit, it's pretty fun," Jared said, spinning around one last time. He peeled off the receipt, scanning it quickly. "I didn't want a meal!"

"What do you mean?" Maddie asked, taking a sip of her chocolate milkshake.

"I wanted some fries, a burger, and a soda!" he explained. "Why didn't you listen to me?"

"That is a meal stupid!" Maddie shouted. "Did you want to spend the extra 30 cents?"

"Oh." Jared said simply, shoving a handful of fries in his mouth to shut himself up. He wiped the grease on his hand onto his pants.

"That's disgusting!" Maddie said, throwing napkins at him. "Use a napkin for God's sake!" Jared stuck his tongue out at Maddie, but wiped his hands off using a napkin.

"Better?" he asked sarcastically.

"Yes, thank you." Maddie smiled.

"So Maddie, tell me the tricks of the trade for being in the Eastwood battery." Jarred said, leaning back in his chair. Maddie took another sip of her milkshake while trying to collect her thoughts in her head.

"Like Stonewall, Eastwood drumline has unwritten rules also. More specifically, five of them." Maddie began. "The first is to do what you're told. While you may not be a freshman, Zach and the others are going to treat you like one mostly because you're the new kid on the block. Expect them to be nitpick-y and make crazy demands - they're doing it just to piss you off.

Rule number two: stay on the lead snare's, i.e. Zach's, good side."

"He has a good side?" Jared laughed.

"You'd be surprised." She replied. "Currently, you're on his bad side; in his eyes, you're still a Stonewall drummer and therefore still an enemy."

"How does someone in my position get on Zach's rumored good side?"

"They don't." Maddie bluntly said. "They just have to deal with Zach's crap, and they'll eventually earn his respect that way. I'll help you if Zach gets especially bad-"

"Such as him trying to kill me again?" Jared interrupted.

"Let's go with that. But otherwise, I'm staying out of it; which leads me to the third rule…"

"Being?"

"Everyone is as important as everyone else, so you should treat them with respect."

"Are you serious? Zach's treated me like I'm a complete piece of shit." Jared said, crossing his arms. "I never had to deal with that at Stonewall."

"Stonewall tends to take the mentality that a few privileged people are more important than the greater good. You were one of those people, so you don't really understand what it's like to not be one. Here at Eastwood everyone is friends with everyone else. If someone comes along and is an asshole or doesn't get along, they're going to have a bad time. At the current moment, you are that someone."

"Lovely." Jared said cynically.

"Look, I'm trying to help you." Maddie hissed, standing up to throw away her tray. "But I don't have to."

"Then why are you?!" Jared demanded, following her out the door. Maddie stopped suddenly, snapping her head around.

"I honestly don't know." She stormed off, and Jared ran after her.

"Wait!" he called. He grabbed Maddie by her shoulder, but she shrugged it off. "I'm sorry! I need your help, really!" Maddie ignored him. "Please?" he said quietly. Maddie pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Jared, I've tried helping you countless times before." She sighed, still walking. "Every single time you either ignore me or argue with me."

"Stop!" Jared begged, practically running to catch up with her. "I can't walk this fast!" Maddie laughed, despite herself, and stopped.

"What do you want?"

"I want to know the other two!"

"Two what?" Maddie asked, playing dumb.

"The five unwritten rules of Eastwood drumline!"

"You told me you wanted two rules." Jared's face grew red with anger, and Maddie grinned, enjoying pissing him off.

"No, you have two more to tell me." Jared whined.

"Why in the world would you want to know those?" Maddie's grin grew, if such a thing was possible.

"Because knowing my luck, rule number four is something along the lines of 'all new members must jump off the school to see if they survive.'"

"Actually…"

"Are you serious?!"

"Of course not; but the fourth rule requires initiation for new members. Is there something wrong?" she asked, seeing Jared's face pale.

"No, it's fine." He muttered.

"Look, it's not as bad as Stonewall's." Maddie assured him. "Zach survived it, I survived it; we all have."

"How do you know what Stonewall's initiation is like?"

"We have an ally." Maddie said. "But I can't tell you anymore until we can fully trust you." Jared opened his mouth to protest, but a quick glare from Maddie silenced him.

"The last rule is to be completely devoted to the line." Maddie said after a few moments, lifting her head up proudly. "You have to be willing to give up everything to have the honor of being in drumline, no matter what section you're in. Every scrap of your being, every fiber of your soul, every-"

"Okay, I get it." Jared interrupted, rolling his eyes. "Continue, minus the emotional stuff."

"We're a tightly packed group for one reason: we all have made sacrifices, and at the end of the day, we've mainly got each other." Maddie finished, pleased with herself. "So, any questions?"

"Do I have to be in battery?" Jared asked.

"Yeah, you do. There's no escaping it."

"Whatever. At least I won't have to deal with you and your caffeine lows." Jared joked, shoving Maddie in the arm.

"You've got to admit though; they've led to some fun times." Maddie said, reminiscing.

"Last time I checked, they led to a confrontation with Stonewall, more blisters than I'd ever want, and long, painful practices." Jared said.

"Like I said, fun times." Maddie said, shrugging.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

When Maddie and Jared got back to the band room, the lights were turned off. Jared glanced around uneasily as Maddie unlocked the door - he didn't remember ever turning off the lights before they left, and even if they automatically turned themselves off they weren't gone that long. He wasn't sure what to expect.

Maddie went in without hesitation, so Jared assumed it was safe. He regretted his decision when his vision went completely dark as someone attacked him from behind and tied a bandanna around his eyes.

"What the hell is going on?" Jared shouted, scared shitless. He waved his arms around wildly in self-defense but was quickly restrained by someone stronger than him.

"Welcome to the beginning of your initiation!" He heard Zach announce. "By the end of the day, you'll be an official member of the Eastwood high school drumline!"

Jared's face paled. "You've got to be kidding me." he groaned. "I won't do it."

Although Jared couldn't see it, he was sure Zach was glaring at him dangerously. "You are going to do this whether you like it or not. Got it?" Jared clenched his jaw, silent. "Fine then, have it your way." Zach said. "Let's get going."

"Stop!" Jared said, panicking. A few of the drummers lifted Jared up and carefully carried him outside, buckling him into the backseat of a smelly car. The engine sputtered before coming to life with a loud roar, and Jared could feel the car begin to drive to the unspecified destination. From hearing the chatter of the car passengers, Jared could tell that Maddie, Max, Janie, and Ben were in the car; the angry cursing at passing traffic informed him that Zach was the driver.

After a long debate on the future of the Cadets drum corp, the car screeched to a halt. A few screeches following that alerted Jared there was a caravan of at least 2 other cars, all of which he assumed to be filled with drumline people. The door opened and Jared was helped out of the car, still blindfolded; a heavy vest was placed on him.

"This feels like..." he jumped a little. "A paintball vest." Jared commented.

"That's because it is." Zach said, untying the bandanna from Jared's head and tying his wrists instead. He glanced around, and saw they were in the middle of a large, grassy field bordered by a deserted playground on one side and a forest on the other; the drumline cars were in the parking lot a few yards away.

"What's going on..?" Jared asked hestantly.

"We're going to shoot at you with paintball guns, and you've got to run around and hide. If you're shot less than 40 times by the time we run out of ammo, you're in the line." Maddie explained. "You don't get a gun of your own, and you have a 30 second head start."

"What if I get hit more than that?"

"You don't want to know."

"You've got 30 seconds to run." Max said, glancing at his watch.

"Aren't you going to untie my hands first?"

"25 seconds..."

"Come on, this isn't funny!"

"18..."

"Crap!" Jared shouted, running across the grass toward the relative safety of the woods. Suddenly, a paintball hit him square in the back; the force caught Jared off guard, causing him to fall to the ground. As the line ran toward him, yelling and waving around paintball guns, Jared struggled to get to his feet. Finally he resumed his stumbling run toward the trees.

He noticed a large branch sticking out at about his chest level, and he rose his arms behind him to try to get the bandanna off. While he desperately tried to make his bonds looser with the branch, the others were quickly catching up. "Shit, shit, shit, SHIT!" Jared muttered. He saw Zach stop, an evil glint in the section leader's eye as he rose up the paintball gun to eye level .

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

"What is he doing?!" Maddie thought, seeing Jared struggle. "Run you dumbass!" she murmured.

"Don't worry about your boyfriend." Zach said, turning around to face her. "Paintballs don't hurt too much, so long as you hit him in the vest."

"He's not my boyfriend!" Maddie screamed. Over Zach's shoulder she saw Jared sprint away, his hands now free. She grinned.

"What?" Zach snapped. Maddie said nothing, and instead nodded toward the spot where Jared had sat moments earlier. Zach cursed. "Okay, split up and find him. if he's close to you, send the signal. Now go!" The group split into pairs, all of them going into different directions. Maddie and Janie remained in the same spot.

"Where do you think he went?" Janie asked, anxious to get revenge on the pest who crashed her party.

Maddie thought a moment, looking around her. "I saw him go that way," she said, pointing toward the direction Zach and Max had gone in. "But knowing Jared, he probably doubled back around and went to the playground, thinking we wouldn't shoot at him while there were little kids around. There's an abundance of hiding spots there."

"But there aren't any kids around today." Janie pointed out, following Maddie toward the graffiti-ridden jungle gym.

"Just because he gets a good idea every so often doesn't mean he's a genuis." Maddie grinned. When they reached the short fence that surrounded the playground, Maddie stopped. "Look, there he is." she whispered, pointing to a shoe sticking out of a miniature tunnel. "On the count of three, you go on the shoe side and start shooting. I'll go on the opposite end to block his escape. Ready?" Janie nodded. "One... two... three!"

They hopped the fence and assumed their positions. "HA!" Maddie cried, ducking down to face into the tunnel. To her surprise there was nothing attached to the shoe. Janie yelped, and Maddie's head snapped back up. "You've got to be kidding me." she groaned. Jared, one of his feet bare, had an arm around Janie's neck. The other hand held Janie's paintball gun and he was pointing it back and forth from Janie to Maddie. He had a triumphantly smug look on his face, and Maddie would have shot him right then if Janie wasn't a hostage.

"See what happens when you chase after the wrong guy!" he crowed, obviously pleased with himself.

"Jared, let Janie go." Maddie said cautiously.

"Put down the paintball gun first."

"That's not going to happen."

"PUT DOWN THE - " He was interrupted by a wall of paintballs hitting him in the back; it sounded like a hard rainfall on concrete. Janie suddenly elbowed Jared in the chest and ran toward Maddie, covering her head to protect herself from the careless shooting of the drumline. Jared decided to follow suit and ran back into the forest.

"Don't let him get away!" Zach shouted, emerging from his spot underneath the slide. The other drumline members left their hiding spots in various places around the park, and all pursued Jared. "Are you okay?" he asked Janie.

"I'm a little bruised from when Jared stole the paintball gun, but otherwise alright." Janie assured him.

"Good." Zach replied. "Why don't you and Maddie wait in the car while we annihilate Jared?"

"Fine." Maddie and Janie sighed simultaneously; they knew arguing was pointless. When they were back in the car, Janie locked the doors and turned on the radio. It wasn't loud enough, however, to drown out the loud thud of something hitting the car door.

"What was that?" Maddie wondered. She got her answer when Jared's head popped into view. He motioned for them to put the window down, and Maddie shook her head no.

Maddie and Janie could faintly hear him shout, "Let me in!" through the window. When Maddie shook her head again, Jared glanced over his shoulder, toward the field. "Let me in!" he repeated, a little louder while banging on the window frantically. Maddie said nothing, and turned away from the window.

"Dumbass." she muttered. The car shook, and Maddie realized Jared was trying to kick the door open. "Cut that out!" she shouted, knowing full well if Jared kicked hard enough, he'd be able to get in. Jared grinned in reply, and resumed his kicking. Finally the door swung open, and Jared quickly slid inside the car, slamming the door behind him. Just then, the window turned multi-colored from the paintballs, blocking the view outside. Maddie and Janie screamed and exited the car on the opposite end.

"Fix your goddamn car!" Maddie shouted to Zach as she and Janie ran away. Suddenly all fell silent as the line slowly surrounded the car.

"Give it up Jared!" Zach said, "You're not going to get out without getting hit!" The window rolled down a crack, and the barrel of the paintball gun stuck out. A bright red ball splattered against Zach's chest, and his mouth formed an "o" in surprise. "He shot me." he said in both surprise and awe. He quickly came out of his shocked state. "Load up all the extra ammo you've got!" Zach ordered.

"Zach, we don't have any." Ben pointed out.

"Where is it then?!"

Everyone looked nervously at each other. "It's all in your car."

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Jared knew he was screwed. There were probably 5 or so paintballs left in his gun, and he was surrounded. It appeared his only two options were to surrender, or to starve to death in the tiny car. "There's got to be some food around here somewhere." he assured himself, digging through the glove compartment. "If I find a pack of crackers, I can -" he stopped, his hand bumping against what felt like a tube for tennis balls. Jared pulled it out, and grinned. This was much, much more glorious than any food.

It was a giant tube of variously-colored paintballs. After searching in the glove compartment a little more, Jared found at least 2 similar containers. He could only imagine how many more were in the trunk of the car, which was accessible from the inside. "Perfect." he said, rolling down the front passenger window a crack. He could see slightly over the top of it, and aimed the paintball gun toward Zach. He pressed the trigger once, and smirked at Zach's shocked expression.

"Jared! Stop!" Maddie screamed, running back to Zach's car to kick it open; she planned on giving him a good peace of her mind. Jared looked over, annoyed, and pulled Maddie into the car before she could even swing her foot back. He emptied the contents of the paintball gun on the line, which fired back in response. When both sides were out of ammo, everyone stared at each other, waiting to see who would make the first move.

"Now that I've got your attention," he began, rolling down the window a little more so the others could see that Maddie was in the car, "I believe it's time we come to a truce."

"You're taking this way too seriously." Maddie told Jared.

"Hush." he whispered to her. "Now, if you want to see Maddie in one piece, you will put down your paintball guns." he called out the window. There was a clatter as the plastic fell to the ground. "Good. Now Zach, you will toss me your car keys, okay?"

"You're a sophomore! You don't even have your license yet!" Zach shouted back.

"Look, if you don't give me the car keys, I'll - oomph!" Jared's head went out of view.

"Oomph?" Max echoed. "What does he mean by that?"

"It was an expression of pain." Maddie said, emerging from the car, the formerly-stolen paintball gun in hand; she tossed it to the ground in front of her and the others cheered. "He's all yours."

"We're out of ammo." Hayley said. "Besides, you knocked him out. It wouldn't be fair to shoot at him."

"Oops." Maddie shrugged, blushing. "I guess that means we're done with initiation, then?"

"Not necessarily. Remember, if he was hit more than 40 times, he's out of the line." Zach reminded her.

"Oh come on Zach. You know we've never actually counted before!" Maddie protested.

"He just attempted to take you hostage, and you're defending the freak?!"

"He may be a freak, but he's MY freak." Maddie said. "I'd hate to see him get kicked out after all the shit we put him through already."

"One, I am calling B.S. on your claim. Two, we're still counting either way. Help me get him out of my car." Zach said. The bass drummers went over and lifted the still-unconscious Jared out, placing him on the ground. Zach poked Jared's body, counting each individual splatter of paint. He rolled Jared's body over, and continued counting on the back. Finally Zach stood up, turning to face the line.

"Well?" Maddie asked anxiously.

"39." Zach said, his head hanging in defeat. Maddie cheered internally, and the others looked at each other, shocked.

"So he's in officially?" somebody asked.

"Yeah, he's in." Zach replied, storming over to Ben's pickup truck.

"I hope you're happy." Zach said simply to Vishnu, tossing his gun into the trunk. Vishnu said nothing, laughing hysterically instead.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

"What happened?" Jared murmured, his vision slightly blurry. As he regained consciousness he became aware of the fact that he was laying across the backseat, his head in Maddie's lap. Maddie started, and quickly stopped her worry-induced petting of Jared's soft hair.

"You decided to go psycho on us, stole Janie's paintball gun, and then held me hostage for about two minutes." Maddie said.

"Then how'd I end up here?"

"I knocked you out so I could escape." Maddie explained. "Sorry about that, by the way."

"Sorry I flipped out on your guys." Jared apologized. "I just wasn't sure if it was going to be like Stonewall's initiation or not, so I thought it was better to be safe than sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Maddie said. "Just make sure not to do it again, okay?"

"Alright." Jared agreed. He sat up, and the two of them hugged, earning sarcastic "aw"s from Janie and Zach in the front seat.

"Isn't that cute." Zach commented.

"Shut up!" They both shouted simultaneously. Zach chuckled to himself and continued driving.

* * *

**It's Elemental's sweet 16! Thanks to everyone who has reviewed this story, especially Closetbrilliance97, who still reviews every single one of these chapters. Go look up her stuff NOW - it's absolutely crazy and so much fun to read. In honor of Elemental's sweet 16, I decided the Eastwood drumline needed a mascot. There shall be more on that next chapter; I just wanted to say it now, for those of you who are wondering why I randomly stuck a cat in the story.**

**As a friendly reminder, review review review! They help a lot, I promise you. For example, I'm now trying to write longer chapters thanks to the request of a few readers. See what a difference you can make? *end public service announcement***

**Hoping all of you have a wonderful New Year!**

**~The Sound of Drums**

**A/N #2**

**Okay. So some big(ger) changes. I got rid of the cat, Jo. While I was editing it was bothering me so I cut her from the story. As a result I merged together chapters 16 and 17 to make a slightly longer chapter. So yeah... yay**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

After Jared's initiation, January became a blur of intense practices in an effort to get the entire show together by the first competition, which was the last weekend in February.

"This is it guys." Zach announced at the last rehearsal before the competition, "This is our first run of the whole show. This run is going to be a good indicator of how we'll be tomorrow at our competition, so try to recreate that feeling you get right before you perform for real. We'll have tomorrow morning to clean, but otherwise this is all we've got."

"And it's not a lot." Jared mentally added, dismally looking around the gym. Sure, Eastwood had a floor to march on and decent instruments to play on, but there wasn't much else than that. The band parents hadn't been able to finish sewing the uniforms on time, there were no backdrops or props of any kind, and the only sound effects currently being implemented were voices saying each element name. Although they were ahead in music, they were so far behind in every other aspect.

"Let's do this!" Zach said, nodding toward the set player to begin the show. For the next five and a half minutes, the line performed to an invisible audience sitting in the folded up bleachers; by the end of the show, everyone was panting and sweaty.

"Very nice." Maddie said, breaking the trance-like state of the line. "Let's bring it in."

Everyone gathered behind the pit equipment, and Maddie and Zach stood up front.

"Okay guys, so how'd you think that run was?" Everyone cheered and Maddie grinned. "Great. I completely agree - that was a really solid first run."

"You sound like you're surprised." Anna commented.

"I am." Maddie admitted. "We weren't nearly this far on last year's show."

"Last year's seniors sucked though." Zach reminded, "They kept pulling us way behind schedule."

Maddie nodded in agreement. "You all have been working really hard the past couple of days. How about we call it a night?" she suggested. "We all need to rest up before our show tomorrow." The others nodded in agreement, and Zach banged his snare to dismiss everyone.

"Fold up the floor NICELY as soon as pit moves off their stuff." Zach reminded everyone. "And don't forget, we're having our traditional night-before dinner at the_ Le Eiffel Tower_ restaurant in half an hour."

"Huh?" Jared asked, confused. "I wasn't told anything about this."

"Oops." Zach said over-innocently, quickly turning away to help put away the pit equipment.

"Zach..." Maddie warned. "Don't be a jerk." She turned to Jared. "You're welcome to come, of course, seeing as you're officially part of the line." She looked over her shoulder to shout at Zach. "Officially. Part. Of the line!"

"Okay, I get it!" Zach responded, grimacing.

Maddie grinned. "Do you need a ride over? I just got my license." she offered.

"Do you even have a car?" Jared asked.

"I do now!"

"Do I want to know?"

"Probably not."

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Jared stood by the band room door, waiting for Maddie to finish up whatever she was doing in the storage closet. A few moments later she emerged in a shimmering deep blue dress. Her hair was up in a bun, and her makeup accented all the right things. Glancing down at her freshly-painted nails, Maddie frowned in distaste.

"See? I told you I'd do a good job!" Janie said, following Maddie out. Maddie shook her head in amusement.

"What?" Maddie asked, catching Jared staring at her. "Did Janie actually sabotage my outfit or something?"

"Wow." Was all that Jared could manage out.

"I told you so." Janie chuckled, causing Maddie to blush.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

Jared couldn't stop staring at Maddie the entire way over to the restaurant. He was mesmerized by the sudden transformation of his former section leader; that, and he was thoroughly impressed by the fact that she drove a stick shift. Maddie caught Jared looking at her when she pulled up at a traffic light.

"Okay, seriously now. Did Janie screw up that badly?" Maddie asked.

"No, you look great!" Jared blurted. Maddie snorted in disbelief and faced forward again, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel. There was a slight flush to her face, and she hoped Jared hadn't noticed. Both were thankful when Maddie pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant, thus ending the extremely awkward silence.

"Isn't this a fancy restaurant?" Jared asked, seeing couples in what resembled black-tie attire.

"You bet." Maddie said, turning off the engine. Jared then noticed that Maddie owned the only truck sitting in the lot; the rest of the cars were generally bright red sports cars or silver foreign cars. A few moments later, the rest of the drumline pulled into the parking lot, making sure to use their larger cars to park on the either side of the more expensive, smaller cars. "Hey guys!" Maddie called through her window, hopping out of the car. Jared followed suit, and everyone walked toward the front doors.

"So why are you and Zach the only ones wearing something nice?" Jared asked, glancing over at Zach's tuxedo.

"Because we're section leaders." Maddie said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Okay, let me rephrase that. Why is the rest of the line wearing what they wore to practice, sweat and all?"

"Because it's another one of those Eastwood traditions we simply can't bear to break." Maddie said, holding the door open for everyone. "There's an unwritten rule at this restaurant that you have to dress as if you are a millionare."

"What happens if you don't?" Jared asked anxiously, seeing dirty looks thrown at the drumline by people sitting at candle-lit tables.

"Nothing." Maddie said. "That's the beauty of it. Because the apparel is implied, they can't do anything to us. I'm still surprised they haven't changed that, with all the years we've been coming here."

"How many?" the host asked, his forehead creasing. He had a small mustache and his nose wrinkled as if he had just hit a skunk while driving.

Zach quickly counted. "23" he said. "If you could fit us all at a large table, that'd be great."

The waiter sighed. "I'll see what I can do. In the meantime, would any of you like to... freshen up in our facilities?"

"Nah, we're fine." Zach responded, flashing a toothy grin. The host's face fell, and he sulked off to put together a couple of tables for the group. After a lengthy wait, he finally returned.

"Alright, we have put together your tables. But I'd like to ask you all to please clean yourselves up before we seat you. It's against our policy to serve people with lower-class tendencies like yourself unless you make an effort."

"Where does it say that?" Zach inquired, suddenly angry.

"It doesn't, although for the sake of our other, more important patrons - "

"So you're telling me that you're making up the restaurant rules as you go along?" Zach said, raising his voice. He was starting to attract the attention of a few of the people eating, which pleased him quite a bit. Adding a pompous air to his voice, Zach continued his rant. "How DARE you imply that we aren't as important as anyone else inside this restaurant!"

"Sir, please, you're causing a -"

"I don't know who you are, but I'm pretty sure you don't know who we are!" Zach said, his hand gestures growing more wild along with his voice. "Our attire may not tell you as much, be WE are the award-winning Eastwood Indoor Percussion Ensemble. We are one of the most respected in our field and our highly-trained musicians will NOT stand for your intolerance of us. Now if you please, take us to our seats, or we shall have a word with the manager!"

Jared applauded in his head as the host gaped at Zach. "I'm... I'm so sorry sir." he sputtered.

"Damn right you are." Zach said.

"Right his way." the host stuttered, grabbing a handful of menus nervously. He hurried over to the table, and spread out the menus. "Have a nice meal." he added quickly, practically running away from the group.

"Isn't this nice!" Janie gushed, sitting in the middle. Zach scooted in next to her, and Maddie went on the other side; Ben ended up next to Maddie, and Jared grudgingly filed in next to Ben.

"It's alright." Jared shrugged. He scanned the menu. "Um, does anybody speak French?" he asked.

"First of all, it's upside down." Maddie laughed, reaching over Ben to flip the menu the correct way for Jared. "Okay, so are you a meat or vegatable person?"

"What kind of question is that?!"

"If you were a vegetable person, I'd recommend the _Ratatouille. _But if you were more of a meat person, you should probably try the duck. It's fantastic."

"I think I'll stick with a bowl of soup." Jared decided. "It sounds safer."

"Be my guest." Maddie said. "It was just a suggestion..." A few minutes later, a waiter came and took everyone's order. After he left, everyone began sharing the stories of drumline seasons past. Jared enjoyed just sitting there quietly and hearing all the hilarious shenanigans people got themselves into.

"Dude, do you remember that one time when we got kicked out of the mall in Dayton?" Max said to Zach.

"Holy crap, yes!" Zach shouted. "That was the best... we should do that again."

"Wait, so what happened?" Jared asked.

"Okay, so we were in the mall in Dayton, when Ben over here suggested that we - "

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the little drumline that couldn't," a cutting voice said, ending all conversation at the table abruptly.

"Hello Olivia." Zach said coldly, not even turning around to face her.

"Enjoying a nice evening out on the town?" she asked, a malicious smile on her face.

"Of course. And I guess everyone else is here with you?"

"Of course." She responded, gesturing over to a couple of tables where the Stonewall Drumline was; they were all dressed in their finest and looked like they were about to go head over to the prom. "It was actually turning out to be a pleasant evening until you all showed up and stunk up the place with the stench of sweat and failure."

"You take that back!" Maddie demanded, leaping up. She held a fork in her hand, and Jared tried to tug it out gently to prevent any accidents.

"Whatever." Oliva laughed. By this point Steven and a couple of the more muscular players at Stonewall had joined her. She noticed Jared's futile attempts at retrieving the fork and smiled. "Jared, hi, how are you sweetheart?" she asked, gliding over behind his chair. "I hope that the barbarians are treating you well?"

"Yeah, they are." he responded quietly. The awkwardness he was feeling was absolutely overwhelming.

"For Christ's sake, we are not barbarians." Maddie shouted. "Why don't you put your money where your mouth is?"

"Shut up Smurf." Steven said viciously. Maddie lost all self control and dove at him, raking her nails against his face. Suddenly, both drumlines were at their feet and attacking each other. The rest of the patrons in the restaurant sat there with confused looks on their faces as World War III broke out inside _Le Eiffel Tower."_

__"STOP!" the host shouted above all the noise, his face red with anger. Everyone froze where they were. "You. Out of my restaurant NOW!" he shouted, grabbing the collar of Zach's shirt and pulling him out of the pile of drumline kids. "And that goes for the rest of you!" he added.

"Excellent. Maybe now we can have some refinement return to our evening." Oliva said, patting down her torn dress.

"No, you too. I want all of you out right now before I call security." Olivia and the rest of the Stonewall Drumline stood their with their mouths hanging open. "You have until the count of _dix. Un... deux... trois..._" Suddenly everyone scrambled to get their things and evacuate the restaurant. When the restaurant was clear of drumline kids, he turned to face the remaining patrons._  
_

"I am so sorry for that scene, ladies and gentlemen," he said, suddenly calm. "Rest assured they will NOT be allowed to return again."

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

"You're going to regret this!" Olivia shouted at Zach as they climbed into their respective cars.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, waving a hand at her in dismissal. She huffed in anger and sped away with the rest of Stonewall.

"So um, that was interesting." Zach said after a couple minutes to Eastwood. Everyone just stood there and looked at him blankly. "Let's just go home I guess. We need to rest up for tomorrow so that we can kick Stonewall's asses twice in a row." Everyone cheered half-heartedly, then went their separate ways.

"Are you okay?" Maddie asked Jared when they were in the privacy of her truck.

"Yeah, I'm fine." he said. "Are you?"

"Couldn't be better." she grinned. She reached out toward his eyebrow, which was bleeding. "Here, let me get that." she said, wiping it clean with a tissue. Although it hurt, Jared sat there quietly.

"That was kind of awesome how you went ape-shit on Steven." he said.

"You think so?"

"Yeah, I do." Jared smiled at her, and she gave him a small smile back. She started the car and they left to go return home.

* * *

**Happy Chinese New Year everyone!**

**You know the drill: read and review. :)**

**~The Sound of Drums**


	18. The Bet

Chapter 18

It was the big day, and Maddie had a nervous feeling in her stomach as she walked into the band room at Eastwood High. The line had agreed to arrive early in order to make some last minute adjustments to their show; they also needed to figure out how to pack the infamously small equipment truck.

"Hey guys." Maddie said, waving. The others looked bleakly at her, waving back sluggishly. Many of them had bruises and cuts from the fight from the night before, but she had a feeling that wasn't what was troubling them. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"The band parents went into overdrive last night and finished our uniforms." Janie said.

"That's great!" Maddie shouted.

"No, it's really not," Hannah moaned, holding up a uniform bag. Maddie unzipped it, and her jaw dropped.

"They're awful!" Max cried. Maddie couldn't help but mentally agree. The uniforms consisted of a one piece sweatsuit; The back was a plain, velvety black while the front was multicolored speckles.

"At least the speckles each represent the elements." Maddie said, smiling weakly at them.

"It looks like somebody puked on our uniforms." Jared huffed. Maddie threw a desperate, pleading glance at Zach, trying to think of something positive to say about the atrocious outfits.

"On the bright side, they fit nicely." Zach feebly offered. Everyone looked at Zach like he was an idiot, and he shrugged. "Look, be thankful we even have uniforms! There are other lines out there that have to wear a t-shirt and jeans because they cannot afford anything else."

"I'd rather wear that than this piece of crap." Somebody muttered under their breath. Zach heard this, and grew angry.

"Fine then. Maybe a few laps around the school will teach you to appreciate what you have!" Zach shouted. The others stood there, confused as to whether they were actually supposed to run laps. "Now!" he added, causing everyone to bolt out of the band room. When the line was gone, he and Maddie looked at each other and sighed.

"In their defense, the uniforms really are awful." Maddie admitted.

"I know. But they need to learn to just shut up and accept things." Zach explained. "Chris and Adam have never been the best costume designers."

"You didn't have to make them run laps."

"Is our mighty section leader going soft on us due to a certain snare drummer named Jar-"

"NO!" Maddie interrupted, turning red in the face. Zach smirked, and she glared at him. "I really hate you sometimes," she said. They stood there in a heavy silence, getting the instruments ready for being loaded onto the truck. Eventually everyone arrived, red-faced, panting, and sweaty.

"That was three laps. Are we done now?" Haley wheezed between gasps.

"Do you understand my point about the uniforms?" Zach asked.

"Yes!" Everyone lied.

"Good. Now hurry up and get changed; the truck is going to be here any minute, and we need to load up as quickly as possible." As soon as the words left Zach's lips, a loud honking came from outside. Everyone stared at each other, wide-eyed. "Well, don't just stand there! Leave the uniforms here and load up!" Zach growled, growing increasingly annoyed with everyone. He and Maddie began dragging instruments outside, and a few other people joined in after throwing on their uniforms.

"So where's the truck?" Jared asked.

"Very funny." Maddie answered sarcastically, faking a laugh.

"No, seriously. Where is it?"

"It's in front of that van over there, next to the curb." Maddie said, pointing. Jared mentally groaned. Instead of seeing a long trailer like Stonewall had, he saw an old, rusted U-haul truck. Over the faded logo was the poorly-painted mascot of Eastwood, an elephant, playing a snare drum. Overall, the jalopy looked absolutely pathetic.

"You've got to be kidding me." Jared said. "It's a piece of junk on wheels!"

"Hey!" Maddie exclaimed, getting defensive. "It's not a piece of junk, it's just been over-loved! We saved up enough money to buy this last year. Before then, we had to borrow pickup trucks from the band parents. It wasn't very fun to get the marimbas on them, let me tell you."

"Are you sure it'll hold the weight of all our equipment?" Jared asked, going inside the stuffy cargo compartment. He jumped a little, and the thin, worn out metal sagged slightly under his weight.

"It's survived before." Maddie shrugged. "Besides, it's only a two hour trip."

"That's what worries me."

"Less talking, and more working!" Zach ordered, lifting on a bass-drum case. Maddie and Jared looked at each other, shrugged, and decided to follow orders, lest they wanted to provoke Zach's fury.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

"I think that's it." Maddie grinned, pulling down the truck door. She clicked a lock into place and pocketed the key.

"Alright guys, go grab your stuff and load up!" Zach ordered.

"Are we riding in school buses?" Jared asked, praying the answer was no.

"You bet." Maddie said. "Normally, we'd be driven by band parents, but we saved enough money to pay the drivers for our first trip!" She was clearly excited by this, and Jared smiled faintly for her sake. They followed everyone else onto the bus, and Jared ended sitting next to Maddie. For the whole ride, there wasn't a single moment of peace or quiet. In the back, the seniors were singing random songs such as "Every Time We Touch" at the top of their lungs while in the front the freshmen played Mario Kart on Nintendo DS, cursing at each other like drunk sailors. Jared was thankful that he was in the middle section, where the juniors and sophomores were having relatively normal conversations.

After stopping for a quick lunch break at McDonalds, the bus pulled into the Bayonne HS parking lot, where the competition was being held. As soon as the bus stopped, the drumline poured out, running frantically toward the truck.

"What's the hurry?" Jared asked, trying to keep up with Maddie.

"Our 2 hour bus ride turned into a 3 hour ride." Maddie panted, jumping up onto the truck to throw off drum cases. "Our official warm up starts in 10 minutes!" Suddenly, Jared took on the frantic state of the rest of the drumline, and helped the pit throw cymbals onto their instruments.

"Get changed!" Zach shouted, already into his uniform. Suddenly, everyone stopped what they were doing and headed toward the uniform rack. "After you finish everything else!" he added, shaking his head.

"Um, Eastwood drumline?" A girl with a Bayonne HS t-shirt inquired.

"Yeah, that's us." Zach said briskly, tuning the snares.

"I'm supposed to lead you to warmup." she said timidly.

"Can't you give us 5 more minutes?!" he begged.

"I'm sorry, but you need to go. We can't bump you to a later time, since Stonewall is on after you."

"Lovely." Zach muttered. "Guys, time to go!" he shouted.

"We're not done changing yet!" Max protested.

"Look, we can change while we wait in the hallways. But we don't want a time penalty. It's time to move." Grudgingly, the pit and battery transferred their equipment into the warmup room, which was possibly the tiniest chorus room on the face of the planet.

"I can't breathe." Jared joked, holding his hands up to his neck.

"Not funny." Zach snapped. "It's time to get in the zone. From this point on, there can't be any screwing around."

"Focus!" Craig added, which was the theme of last year's show. There were a few giggles, but they were quickly silenced by Zach's threatening glare.

"Battery, do eights. Pit, do... whatever the hell it is you do." Zach demanded.

"Summertime!" Maddie announced. As the two sections warmed-up, Jared couldn't help but think how awful it sounded. They needed a warmup that they both could play together, but he doubted Zach would ever listen to him. Maybe he'd mention it to Maddie later.

"Awesome. How much time do we have left?" Zach asked the runner.

"Seven minutes."

"That's just enough time for a run through of the show!" he said, happy something was going right today. He tapped off, and the drumline played through their entire show. The first thing Zach said after the run was, "How much time do we have left?"

"About a minute and a half."

"Very nice run guys." Zach said, grinning. Jared disagreed silently, knowing full well there was an abnormally large number of mistakes. The rest of the line should have been informed of said mistakes, but apparently Zach knew best. Jared snorted at the thought, earning himself a few curious stares from people within hearing range.

The runner led the drumline out of the practice room and into a long narrow hallway. "I need to go bring another drumline in to warmup." The runner said. "Another runner will tell you when you can enter the gym to perform. Good luck!" She hurried down the hallway, and the drumline watched her until she was out of sight.

"That was interesting." Janie commented to Maddie, who laughed to herself. A few minutes later, the drumline heard music playing, and they went down the hallway, toward the noise. Looking into the chorus room, Eastwood saw Stonewall warming up.

About halfway through a run of the show, Olivia looked up and stopped playing, seeing Eastwood peering in. The bewildered Stonewall drummers slowly faded out, until the new bass drummer was the only one left playing.

"CJ! Stop!" Olivia snapped. "It appears we have some visitors." Hearing this, Eastwood ducked out of the doorway.

"I'm honestly surprised to see you guys after the ass kicking we delivered last night." Olivia said.

"Last time I checked, we were the ones who delivered the ass-kicking." Zach said, entering the room. The rest of Eastwood cautiously followed behind him.

"Are you calling me a liar?" She asked, glaring at Zach. Even though the top of her head barely reached his shoulders, she was still quite intimidating.

"No." he said quietly.

"That's what I thought." Olivia smirked. There was an unfriendly silence for a few moments; Jared could see the gears spinning wildly inside Olivia's head. Finally she broke into a vicious smile. "I have a proposal for you."

"I'm sorry; I'm too young to get married." Zach said. "Not that I'd want to spend the rest of my life with you anyway."

After Eastwood had their fair share of laughter and high-fives, Olivia continued. "It'll be a 'friendly' bet. Interested?"

"What are the terms?"

"The winning drumline gets to have one of the losing drumline's section leaders to be their slave for the weekend."

"As much fun as it sounds," Zach began, "I'm going to have to say-"

"FINE!" Maddie shouted. "I volunteer myself."

"We offer Steven." Olivia replied, shaking Maddie's hand. "It's a deal."

"Eastwood, it's time to move your equipment to the gym." A student runner said, entering the room. He could immediately sense the vicious tension in the room, and backed away quickly before getting drawn into it.

"Good luck." Olivia said. "You'll need it."

"We'll see who needs luck once we're done with our fantastic show!" Zach spat. "Now if you excuse us, we have a show to perform." He and Olivia glared at each other for a few moments, and then Zach turned away, the drumline following after him. Everyone hurried to their instruments and entered into the gym.

Seeing a large crowd of people crammed into small rows of bleachers, Jared could feel the rush of adrenaline that he had grown to love. He burst into a grin, excited, and could tell the rest of the line felt the same. The show went quickly in the blink of an eye, and Jared was relieved to find he had managed to remember everything, minus a few mistakes in drill. The crowd cheered, and Zach did a rim shot, signaling the line to leave. There was an almost frantic air to their movements in an attempt to not go over their time limit. Eventually they got everything out of the gym and near the truck, not bothering to stop to properly fold the floor. "Great show!" Zach praised them. "If Chris and Adam were here, they would be pleased with what you put out on the floor."

"Who?" Jared asked Maddie, while Zach continued his lengthy monologue.

"They're our instructors," Maddie said. "They don't come by very often, maybe about twice a month at the most. They also write our show."

"Why don't they come more often?" Jared asked. "We would be so much better if we had some guidance!"

"Jared, I don't think you understand. We can't afford to pay them. Our drumline literally lives on a day-to-day basis, and we've got so much debt to pay off." She sighed sadly. "I know we need more help for our music. But until our fundraisers get some more money for us, we can't do anything about it. And it makes me so mad because I KNOW we could be great and kick Stonewall's sorry ass."

"Hey, they used to be my school." Jared laughed.

"You've never addressed Stonewall as 'them' before." Maddie commented. "You've always said 'we.'"

"So?"

"You're talking as if you're no longer associated with them."

"After the spectacle last night, I don't want to be associated with them. They act all high and mighty, but they're really no better than anyone else. Eastwood may be weird, but at least they're not hypocrites like Stonewall."

"Good." Maddie said. She noticed the rest of the line was beginning to walk back toward the stadium. "I guess we're going to watch some drumlines while we wait for awards. Let's go." She hurried to catch up with the drumline, and Jared followed after her.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

After getting wristbands to show they had paid for tickets, the drumline filed into the stands, sitting near the very top. Maddie noticed if you stood on the top step and reached, you could potentially use the ceiling rafters as monkey bars. Despite Jared and her daring each other to try, both of them sat in their seats instead.

Finally the line everyone had been waiting for (whether they wanted to admit it or not) entered the gym. Fans jumped up and clapped wildly before the announcer even called their name.

"Ladies and gentlemen, our reigning champions, the Stonewall drumline!" Everyone screamed, and it sounded like a bomb went off from all the echoing in the tiny gym. "Are the judges ready?" Maddie saw the time judge nod. "Is the ensemble ready?" There was a loud roar of an engine from the sound mixer, and Maddie frowned.

"Please tell me their theme isn't about what I think it's about." Maddie begged Jared. He shrugged.

"It wasn't like this when I left." He replied. "It was an underwater show then."

"Performing their 2009 show 'Cars,' Stonewall HS!" The announcer shouted. As the pit began playing "Shut up and Drive" by Rihanna, Maddie dropped her head.

"You have got to be kidding me." She groaned. The rest of the show continued with cheesy pop songs, which pissed Maddie off even more. By the end of it, she was about ready to puke; this however, was mostly because of the cleanness of the line, especially considering this was the beginning of the season. The 30 second tag was even more amazing than the 5 minute show preceding it, and it left Maddie with a nauseous, worried feeling sitting in her stomach. She dared to look over at Zach and saw with worry that he was deathly pale.

"Is he going to be alright?" Jared asked, glancing at his new section leader.

"I'm not sure." Maddie answered.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

After a few college drumlines performed, Zach and Maddie left the stands to go line up for awards with the other section leaders. Everyone was herded into an auxiliary gym, where they were lined up by class division. Maddie and Zach got the pleasure of having Olivia and Steven stand to their left.

"Ready for a weekend of hell?" Olivia whispered to Maddie out of the corner of her mouth. Maddie growled and clenched her fists, but otherwise did nothing.

"It's alright." Zach assured Maddie in a strained voice, patting Maddie on the back. "Things will turn out okay."

Finally the section leaders were allowed to file back into the main gym, and the room grew quiet. The first three classes were announced quickly, and Maddie could feel her blood pressure slowly rising with each name called.

"Now for Scholastic Open." The announcer said. "In third place, with a score of 45. 6, Brookfield High School!" Maddie applauded politely, but couldn't help but feel bad for the drumline's miserable score. "In second place, with a score of 70.9..." Maddie's breath caught, and her nails dug into her skin. "Eastwood High School!"

"Told you so." Olivia hissed at Maddie as she and Zach walked up to get their award. Every step Maddie took felt as if it was lead, and she could hardly breathe. When she and Zach returned to their places in line, she was trying her best to not start crying in the middle of the gym.

"And in first place, with a score of 76.7..." the crowd gasped at the outrageous score, "Stonewall High School!" The crowd erupted into cheering, and Olivia and Steven strode forward, smug looks on their faces. Maddie could see the evil glint in Olivia's eye, and she paled. The independent line scores were announced, but Maddie didn't pay any attention to them. All she could think about was the impending torture that was soon to follow. "Congratulations to all our participants." the announcer said, unofficially dismissing the drumlines. "Directors, please get your score sheets from..."

By this time, Maddie had manage to block out the voice she had grown to hate so quickly. She and Zach walked back with heavy hearts, and she shrugged. "They completely annihilated us." Was all she could manage to say, her voice choking on each word. "It's not because we messed up. They just had so much of their show fine-tuned than we did."

"It's okay Maddie." Janie said, wrapping her arms around her section leader. The rest of the drumline joined in a group hug, until Olivia came over, her own drumline following closely behind.

"Aw, how cute." She said, "What a precious bonding moment."

"Shut up!" Jared shouted, seeing red.

"It looks like Maddie has a little protector." Olivia laughed. "But no matter how many people you have on guard, we're still going to get you next weekend." She flashed a nasty grin, then spun away.

"Don't worry Maddie, we'll make sure nothing happens to you!" Zach assured. The rest of the line nodded in agreement.

"No." Maddie said, catching everyone off guard. "A deal is a deal. They won, so now I've got to follow through."

"We can't let you do that!" Max protested.

"But you have to anyway." Maddie said solemnly. At this, she began walking back toward the busses, still holding the small trophy the drumline had gotten. She threw it into a trashcan on the way out. Eventually, Zach and the others followed her lead.

Jared stood there a minute, and looked into the trashcan. Second place was a weird feeling for him, having come from a drumline where he was so used to winning. He reached in and took out the trophy. He didn't care about how disappointed everyone else was - they should have been happy with how well they did regardless of placement. He became momentarily confused, wondering since when he would ever think such a thing like that, and ran back to the bus.

.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.

When the drumline arrived back at the school, they quickly unloaded the equipment and locked everything up before heading home. Much to Jared's surprise, most of the line was acting rather happy considering their loss. Maddie caught him off guard the most: she was hyper and bubbly, and flitting about from person to person. If Jared didn't know any better, he would have thought that everything was completely normal. He sighed, rubbing his head. Even though he had been with Eastwood for the past few months, trying to figure everyone out gave him a massive headache.

"Hey, Jared!" Zach called, coming over. "Great show today." He patted Jared on the back, and walked to his car with Janie. Jared's eyes widened, surprised that Zach had paid him an actual, non-sarcastic compliment.

"Jared!" Maddie said, catching up with him. "A bunch of the pit people and I are going to grab something to eat at IHOP, since it's late and nothing else is open. You wanna come?"

"Sure," Jared replied, his mood suddenly brightening a bit. "I'd love to."

"Awesome! I'll give you a ride there." she said. "I just need to clean the band room a little bit. You can go wait in my truck." she tossed him her keys, and he went outside, unlocking the door. Jared waited a while by listening to the radio, but Maddie didn't come out, even after all other cars had long gone. Concerned, he went back inside the band room. There was the faint sound of crying or laughter, he couldn't tell, so he went into the storage closet where the source of the noise seemed to be coming from. What he saw nearly broke his heart.

Maddie, the strong girl who never shed a tear and showed no emotions other than happiness or annoyance, was in a heap on the floor, sobbing her eyes out. She was a pitiful mess, and Jared couldn't help but fall to his knees and wrap his arms around her. He didn't care that she would probably kill him for it later; right now, he just wanted her to feel better.

"Shh," Jared assured her as she turned and cried into his chest. "It's all going to be okay; everything will be alright."

* * *

**A/N: So I'm rather ashamed of myself right now. I can't believe that I haven't posted a new chapter in over three months! GAH!**

**Anyway, life is fan-freaking-tastic for me right now. Indoor drumline had an amazing season, and I couldn't be anymore proud of them than I currently am. My love life has finaly worked itself out, thanks to my amazing boyfriend. The school year is almost over, and once finals are over, everything is done for the year.**

**So what does this relative peace and calm in my life mean for you? Hm... how about more chapters? Wahoo!**

**As always, thank you for reading! I'll try to get the next chapter out ASAP.**

**Please review! Reviews make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :)**

**~The Sound of Drums.**


	19. The UnChapter

"Chapter" 20: The Un-Chapter

"Hey Jared," Maddie began.

"What?" Jared said, turning to look at her.

"Did you know that has a rule that says you can't have a chapter be exclusively an author's note?" she asked.

"Are you serious?" he responded. "What kind of a stupid rule is that?"

"I don't know," Maddie replied, "I guess it's so people can't use fanfiction as some sort of blog?"

Jared looked at her blankly. "Um... I need to go." He said suddenly, getting up quickly.

"Why? We just started enjoying our Double Chocolate Chip Frappacinos from Starbucks - you can't leave now!" she protested. "Do you need to change your fanfiction story or something?" she teased.

"Actually, yes." Jared responded, blushing. It always embarrassed him when he admitted to someone in real life that he was the author of a fanfiction story.

"Well, since we're currently in a marching band fanfiction, we should probably go play some drums or stuff so that The Sound of Drums doesn't get in trouble for writing a chapter that really didn't pertain to the subject matter." Maddie thought aloud.

"Wait, we're in a fanfiction?" Jared asked, startled.

"Yup."

"So does this mean that it's like _Inception_?"

"How so?"

"Because my fanfiction is within a fanfiction... I wonder if one of my characters has their own fanfiction that I don't know about." Jared sat down, puzzling over this.

"You learn that we're in a fanfiction, and the first thing you wonder is how much like_ Inception_ this is?" Maddie shouted loudly. "Why aren't you more concerned about the implications?"

"Implications?"

"What this situation implies." Maddie explained, talking to Jared like a small child.

"No, I understand what implications are... but what are those implications?" He asked

"This brings up so many questions about free will and fate!" Maddie said loudly, visibly excited. "Does free will really exist? Or is this how things are supposed to be because it's how a higher power decided they should turn out?"

"Like _The Adjustment Bureau?_" Jared asked. He cried out in pain when Maddie smack him on the side of his head.

"Stop with the pop culture references!" She ordered. "You're such a stupid boy, as always!" With a loud huff, Maddie got up and left, fed up with Jared's inability to grasp what she was trying to convey.

When she was gone, Jared looked around cautiously to make sure nobody else was around. When all was clear, he looked up at the sky and whispered, "Can I please have a pony?"

Wish granted, Jared. Wish granted.

* * *

A/N: Alright. This isn't a new chapter. The text above was necessary to get around the rules. Take THAT fanfiction! However I am mostly using this chapter as space to get all of my former readers up to date and possibly get a couple of new readers since this will send "Elemental" to the top of the stories list.

So wow. I just checked out my profile, and it says my last update for any of my writing was just over two years ago. That's an incredibly long time for me. And it's been quite a busy two years. Um... where should I start? Well, the main reason for my disappearance two years ago was because (as terrible and pathetic as it sounds) my boyfriend broke up with me. Looking back, I find this humorous because the author's note at the end of Chapter 19 talks about my "amazing boyfriend" - little did I know that he'd break up with me a few days later. But whatever. Things regarding that worked out in the end since we're very good friends now.

Anyway, so I somehow managed to finish sophomore year, although my grades were terrible. Junior year was relatively uneventful, although there were a lot of staff changes within the band program which threw everyone off their game quite a bit. I started the stressful college admissions process, so writing was the last thing from my mind. I also got a calico cat who is like my baby - she lets me pick her up and carry her all through the house! Junior year was also when I started going out with my current boyfriend - that has definitely worked out much better than boyfriend #1 since bf #2 and I have been going out for about a year now.

Senior year has been a blast. Stressful and crazy as hell, yes, but fantastic to say the least. Marching band went well, and a few weeks ago, my high school's drumline won WGI World Championships. That's right. We're WORLD champions (If you can't tell, we like to emphasize the "world" part). I did all of my applications and essays, so in a way I was writing - it just wasn't any fun for anyone involved (especially my dad, who got stuck with the task of proofreading my half-assed essays). Prom happened recently, and that was kind of fun. My boyfriend and I enjoyed dancing goofy, but it was kind of awkward doing that while everyone else around us was grinding. Damn horny high schoolers.

Now that things are starting to wind down, since AP tests are over and finals aren't until the middle of June, I've decided to take advantage of this time and start writing again. I didn't even remember that I had this account until a few days ago when I got an email notifying me that somebody had added my story onto their favorites list. It was pretty cool, especially because the story hasn't been updated in two years. I can't help but wonder, though - how did they find "Elemental" in the first place?

ANYWAY, here's some news about "Elemental." After looking over what I previously written, I was surprisingly unhappy with my work. And then I went back and read "Janie's Got a Gun" and I cringed. It's very obvious that my style has changed over the past couple of years - my writing now is significantly better than it was in 2009 (and just as funny, if I do say so myself)! As a result, I have decided to start over from the beginning and rewrite "Elemental."

For now, I'll keep the current version up and start a new one so I can reference back to it for plot points. However, I will most likely be taking it down at some point. I will also definitely be taking down "Janie's Got a Gun". But don't worry my pretties - newly edited portions of "JGG"will appear in a supplementary series that for now will be called "Inside the Drum Closet." As of now, it's just a brain child of mine. I'm hoping that it will consist of character profiles, short stories/scenes that don't really have a place in "Elemental", and deleted scenes. Think of it as the bonus material on the DVD. It's not my top priority right now, so I don't know when that will come out.

I've already finished the first chapter of the new "Elemental", and I'm editing it so that it flows better. Hopefully that'll be up soon (and hopefully something won't come up that will make me disappear again!)

For those of you who are returning to read this, I thank you for following this story from the beginning (or whenever you started reading). For those of you who are new reading this, I'd like to thank you for clicking on the nice little link to my story. I'd also like to invite both groups of readers to stick around and read the new "Elemental" when it is posted up!

One last thing - post in the reviews section any ideas you may have for things you'd like to see in "Inside the Drum Closet." Also post in the reviews if you'd like me to send you a message when I get the updated "Elemental" up.

Thank you all so, so, so much!

~The Sound of Drums

PS. Should I start signing off with my real name? ;)


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